Men's Basketball Grinds Out Win at Tulsa, 76-72

Tuesday, January 10

Tulsa, Okla.

8:00 PM

Temple University

10-8,4-1AAC

Tulsa

4-11,0-4AAC

Temple

Tulsa

Photo by: Andrew Kim

Men's Basketball Grinds Out Win at Tulsa, 76-72

1.10.23 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

TULSA, Okla. – Temple looked to have an easy win at Tulsa, but after two Owls were ejected the team had to come together and grind out a 76-72 win over the Golden Hurricane Tuesday night at the Reynolds Center. With the win, Temple improves to 10-8 and 4-1 in the American Athletic Conference and Tulsa falls to 4-11, 0-4 AAC.

Zach Hicks led the Owls with 14 points, all coming in the first half. Khalif Battle added 13 points while Damian Dunn, who was ejected in the final minute of the first half, tallied 12.

Bryant Selebangue led Tulsa with 19 points and 12 rebounds while Sam Griffin added 16.

First Half
> Trailing 9-7 after the first five minutes, Temple went on an 11-3 run, including eight straight points in under a minute, to take a 20-12 lead with 11:34 on the clock. Dunn scored eight of the Owls' points in the run, including two threes.
> The Owls would extend the margin to a dozen, 30-18, on a three by Shane Dezonie with 8:12 on the clock.
> Consecutive threes by Zach Hicks, his third and fourth of the half, pushed the Owls margin to 17 points, 38-21, with 5:21 to play.
> A Battle three extended the Owls' lead to 20, 45-25, with just over a minute to play. The half ended, however, on a bad note for Temple as Dunn was ejected for a flagrant two foul following an offensive foul. Battle was also whistled for a technical on the play along with Tulsa's Anthony Pritchard.
> Tulsa would capitalize with two free throws and a basket to close the half with six unanswered points and cut the Temple lead to 45-31.

Second Half
> Tulsa scored seven unanswered points to open the second half, cutting the Temple lead to 45-38, and forcing an Owls' timeout.
> A minute later another Temple player was ejected as two technical fouls were whistled on Jahlil White. The Golden Hurricane's Sam Griffin connected on all four free throws to cut the Owls' lead to one, 45-44.
> Tulsa would take the lead, 47-45, on a Griffin three on the next possession, which capped a 16-0 run in the first four minutes of the half.
> The Owls then quickly retook the lead on free throws by Nick Jourdain and a basket by Hysier Miller.
> The game remained close until the Owls ran off five straight points, two free throws by Dezonie and a Battle three made it 65-57.
> Temple extended the lead to double figures, 69-59, with just under six on the clock on two free throws by Emmanuel Okpomo.
> Trailing 73-63 with 47 seconds left, the Golden Hurricane would score six on two baskets and a free throw to cut Temple's lead to four but were unable to close the gap before time expired.

Statistically Speaking
> Miller tied his career high three steals and Kur Jongkuch matched his season high nine rebounds.
> Okpomo set career highs in points (6) and rebounds (8).
> Dezonie saw a season high nine points, five rebounds, and matched his career assists with two.

Next Up
> Temple hosts Memphis at the Liacouras Center Sunday afternoon (3 pm/ESPN2/1210 AM WPHT).