Men’s Basketball Takes its First AAC Loss, 87-76, to Tulane

Saturday, January 7

Philadelphia, Pa.

2:00 P.M.

Temple University

9-8,3-1AAC

Tulane

10-5,3-1AAC

Tulane

Temple

Photo by: Zamani Feelings

Men’s Basketball Takes its First AAC Loss, 87-76, to Tulane

1.7.23 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – Temple dropped its first American Athletic Conference game of the season as Tulane used a 20-6 second half run to defeat the Owls, 87-76, Saturday afternoon at the Liacouras Center. The Owls fall to 9-8, 3-1 in conference play while the Green Wave improve to 9-8 and 3-1.

Khalif Battle led Temple with 21 points while Damian Dunn and Zach Hicks each chipped in with 16. Jaylen Forbes topped Tulane with a game-high 22 points while Kevin Cross had a double-double (15 pts, 10 rebs, 5 asts). Sion James added 17 for the Green Wave.

First Half
> Temple opened the contest with an 8-2 run with four points by Hicks.
> Tulane answered quickly, running off seven straight with a James three giving the Green Wave a 9-8 lead with 13:37 on the clock.
> The half would remain tight with seven lead changes and the largest separation being a six-point Tulane lead, 33-27, with just over two minutes to play.
> The Owls would close the half on a 7-2 run to head into the locker room trailing 35-34.

Second Half
> After a tightly contested first eight minutes, Jahlil White and head coach Aaron McKie were assessed technical fouls. Forbes, the leading free throw shooter in the AAC, made all four attempts and a Collin Holloway basket gave the Green Wave their largest lead, 56-48.
> The Owls answered with a 10-2 run, capped by a Dunn corner three, to tie the game at 58 and force a Tulane timeout with just over 10 minutes to play.
> Battle drained another three to make it 61-58, but Tulane answered with 11 unanswered points, six from Holloway, to take a 69-61 lead.
> Hicks then drained two long threes to cut the lead to 71-67 with five minutes remaining.
> Tulane then scored eight straight, as Temple went cold from the field, to make it 78-67 with 2:19 on the clock.
> The Owls cut the lead to eight, 80-72, on a Hysier Miller basket, but a costly bench technical for two many players on the court allowed the Green Wave to extend the margin to 11 points.
> Battle answered with three to cut it to eight again, 83-75, with 1:27 remaining, but Tulane would hold off the hosts.

Statistically Speaking
> The Owls shot an uncharacteristic 7-14 from the line while Tulane made 22-of-26 from the charity stripe.
> Nick Jourdain (8 pts) led Temple with seven rebounds and two blocked shots.

Next Up
> Temple has a quick turnaround as the Owls travel to Tulsa to take on the Golden Hurricane Tuesday (8 pm/ESPN+/1210 AM WPHT).