Tulsa Defense Smothers Temple on Saturday, 76-58

Saturday, February 9

Reynolds Center

11 AM

Tulsa

14-10, 4-7

Temple

17-7, 7-4

Temple

Tulsa

Photo by: Sam Lazarus

Tulsa Defense Smothers Temple on Saturday, 76-58

2/9/2019 2:15:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

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TULSA, Okla. — Sterling Taplin scored a game-high 14 points and Tulsa held Temple to a season-low 30.6-percent shooting on its way to a 76-58 win on Saturday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Taplin went 6-of-9 from the field for the Golden Hurricane (14-10, 4-7), who shot a season-high 55.4-percent. He led a balanced effort for Tulsa, which finished with five players in double-figures, including DaQuan Jeffries (13 points), Martins Igbanu (12 points), Darien Jackson (10 points) and Jeriah Horne (10 points).

The Hurricane outscored the Owls (17-7, 7-4) 40-8 in the paint and held a 37-31 rebounding edge.

"I thought our guys played extremely hard and well on both ends of the court," head coach Frank Haith said. "Defensively, we were flying around although we did make a couple adjustments during the game, which we executed very well. We identified Shizz (Alston) and (Quinton) Rose. Our identification was on-point defensively. I think that is where we got the separation. We had consecutive stops, 7 kills, and obviously we shot the ball well."

"I think Temple is a great team and The American is a tough conference, so you have to prepared to battle every single night and I think today we came out ready," Taplin said. "I could see it in practice, every rep we did we went hard to make sure we were ready for this game. Now we go on to the next game and have the same focus."

Meanwhile, Temple was led by 13 points from Shizz Alston Jr., who entered the contest ranked third in the American Athletic Conference averaging 18.3 ppg. The senior got off to a hot start with 11 points in the first 10 minutes of the game, but was held without a field goal over the game's final 30 minutes.

"They're well-coached," Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said of the Hurricane. "They've got a plan. They're difficult to play against. Their preparation, just from the teams they've played so far, has put them in a good position."

Tulsa shot 61.5-percent (16-of-26) in the first half and led by as much as a dozen. The home squad led for almost the entire period, taking the lead for good following back-to-back triples from Horne and Jeffries in the opening minutes.

A 3-pointer from Quinton Rose trimmed the Tulsa lead to 22-21 midway through the period before the Hurricane went on a 13-2 run and its largest advantage of the period, 35-23.

Tulsa made six straight shots during the spurt, which began with a Sterling Taplin trey. Martins Igbanu then made three straight baskets and the run was polished off with a Jeffries dunk and jumper by Horne.

A Taplin layup just before the halftime buzzer gave Tulsa a 39-31 lead at the break.

Temple went on an 8-0 run early in the second half to pull within 46-42, but the Hurricane did not allow another Temple basket for nearly eight minutes to rebuild the lead. Taplin and Joiner each hit 3-pointers during an 8-0 run and with seven minutes to play, Taplin started a 12-0 stretch that put the game away.

The Tulsa lead grew to as much as 75-52 following a three-point play from Jeffries with 4:08 left and the Hurricane cruised to the 76-58 final.

Tulsa will hit the road for a pair of games next week, beginning with a 6 p.m. matchup on Thursday, Feb. 14 at Tulane (4-17, 0-9).

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