Tulsa Takes Down Temple 72-66

Tuesday, February 16

Reynolds Center

6:00 PM

Tulsa

10-9,7-7AAC

Temple

4-9,3-9AAC

Temple

Tulsa

Tulsa Takes Down Temple 72-66

2/16/2021 8:54:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

GAME STATS I SEASON STATS

TULSA, Okla. –– Elijah Joiner scored 14 second-half points as Tulsa held off a second half Temple rally for a 72-66 victory Tuesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

The win snapped a three-game Tulsa losing streak and improved the Golden Hurricane record to 10-9 overall and 7-7 in the American Athletic Conference, Temple fell to 4-8 overall and 3-9 in the league.

Joiner led four players in double figures as he ended the night with 17 points, followed by Brandon Rachal's 13, Dairen Jackson with 11 and Austin Richie with 10 points. Khalif Battle led the Owls with 21 points and 7 rebounds.

Tulsa ended the game shooting just 35.5 percent from the field, but in the second half knocked down 52 percent of its shots. The Hurricane took advantage of Temple's 19 turnovers with 19 points, while also holding a 32-33 edge scoring in the paint.

"We really competed and we played hard on defense. We just weren't shooting it great in first half, but our defense was really carrying us. We got to an 18-point lead in the second half, then there was a stretch we missed some easy buckets and they made some baskets'" said Tulsa Head coach Frank Haith. "I was proud of our effort. I think we got back to Tulsa basketball tonight. To win, this team has to play defense. We have to take care of the controllables and we did that."

Tulsa led at the half by 8 points, 30-22, but the Owls jumped out to an 11-6 advantage in the second half, cutting its deficit to three points at 36-33. But over the next 3:34, the Hurricane went on a 13-3 run, including a 10-0 spurt as Darien Jackson scored six of those points on layups.

Tulsa's 13-3 run gave the Hurricane a 49-36 lead on Richie's three-pointer at the 11:49 mark. Tulsa increased its lead to 18 points with 7:43 to play, 58-40, outscoring the Owls during this stretch by a count of 9-4.

Temple responded over the next 3:32 with a 12-2 run of their own to cut its deficit to 8 points at 60-52 at the 4:11 mark. Rachal's basket in the paint put the Hurricane back up by 10 points. The Owls cut Tulsa's lead to 5 points, 68-63 with less than a minute on the game clock and that's as close as the visitors would get.

Tulsa made 9-of-12 free throws in the final 2:07 to hold off the Owls for the 6-point victory.

Temple jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a three-pointer Battle to start the game before Tulsa's Austin Richie tied the score with a three-pointers of his own nearly 2 minutes into the game.

The score was tied three more times in the next seven minutes before Rachal put Tulsa ahead by 11-10 on one of two free throws. Tulsa held onto the lead the rest o the first half, outscoring the Owls 19-12 the rest of the way.

The Hurricane closed out the final 1:46 of the first 20 minutes on an 8-2 run to close out the first half ahead 30-22.

Tulsa scored 11 points off of 13 Temple turnovers in the first half, while the Hurricane had a 15-2 edge in bench scoring. At the intermission, Keyshawn Embery-Simpson came off the bench for 8 first-half points, followed by Austin Richie's 7 points.

Tulsa will be back at the Reynolds Center next Wednesday, Feb. 24 to host the Cincinnati Bearcats. The game will air on ESPNU at 8 p.m.