Tulsa Women Lose Road Heartbreaker at Temple, 73-71

Saturday, January 11

Philadelphia, Pa.

1:00 p.m.

Tulsa

8-9,2-3AAC

Temple

10-6,4-1AAC

Tulsa

Temple

Tulsa Women Lose Road Heartbreaker at Temple, 73-71

1/11/2025 4:18:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Season Stats (PDF)

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. — The Tulsa women's basketball team fell 73-71 in a close heartbreaker at Temple Saturday after fighting back from down 17 points in the third quarter. The Golden Hurricane dropped to 8-9 on the season and 2-3 in American Athletic Conference action while the Owls rose to 10-6 and 4-1 in league play.

It took Tulsa nearly a quarter and a half to fight back from down 56-39 to tie it up at 71 points all, capped by senior Delanie Crawford's fifth 3-pointer with less than six seconds to go. Temple's Amaya Oliver made a clutch offensive board during the following possession and made the go-ahead tip-in layup with a tenth of a second left to seal the loss for the Hurricane.

Tulsa's hoopers were led by Crawford's 21 points, followed by 15 points from redshirt junior Paige Bradley who came alive in the third quarter, and 10 points from junior Hadley Periman. Crawford assisted six times during the game, helping Tulsa finish with 22. She also led the defense with four steals.

Temple won the free throw game with 12-of-13 made from the line compared to Tulsa's 2-for-5 mark. The Owls also won the board battle 40-31, allowing for 14 second-chance points, including the game-winner from Oliver.

"Our team has such great heart, and we have such great resilience. It's a common identity in our team that we just we never give up," said Head Coach Angie Nelp. "We got huge buckets, several in the fourth quarter, but this team plays so together, and they really do have the ability to operate when we needed to. I wish our defense had been just a little bit better in some of those stretches throughout the game. And obviously, with the last play, I thought we did a great job to be able to make it a tie game. I thought we played good defense, and then we just gave up that tip-in on that o-board right there. It's going to sting and it's going to hurt, because you believe we would have gone into overtime. I'm super proud of this team, always."

Temple's Tarriyonna Gary paced the Owls with 21 points with Kaylah Turner (15) and Jaleesa Molina (11) following with double-digit points. Molina had a double-double with 10 rebounds while Tristen Taylor had seven assists.

HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE FIRST QUARTER . . .
Temple's Tiarra East scored the first points of the game on a jumper in the paint at 9:23. Elise Hill answered back with a layup from Delanie Crawford.

After Crawford tied it up at 6-6 with a turnaround jump shot, Temple scored five off a pair of 2-point baskets and a free throw from East. Then, Tulsa used a 10-2 scoring run that included 3-pointers from Paige Bradley and Crawford to go up 16-12 at 3:48.

The Owls took the lead back at 17-16 but allowed Crawford to sink her second trey of the day, moving to 10 points with 2:29 reading the clock. Neither team would score again in the quarter, ending it at 19-17 Tulsa.

IN THE SECOND QUARTER . . .
Temple opened the second period with a three from Kaylah Turner. Turner would follow in the next Owl possession with a driving layup before Jade Clack answered with a driver of her own.

Turner grabbed her eighth point of the quarter with another 3-pointer with a layup by Delanie Crawford to follow. Six unanswered Owl points put Temple up 31-23 at 6:06. Then, Hadley Periman snapped the scoring drought with her first triple of the afternoon.

Temple went ahead by 10 at 36-26 at 4:21 after Turner made another three and her teammate Jaleesa Molina made a set of free throws

Tulsa kept fighting as Jade Clack's layup and Kennedi Alexander's 3-pointer brought it back to within five. Alexander took advantage of her time on the court with a pair of rebounds and added two more points on a deep 2-point play.

Clack sent another shot through the net on a layup to keep it within five points at 40-35, but Temple kept grinding out baskets at all three levels, finishing the half on top 45-35.

At the break, Tulsa was 53.6% from the field (15-28), including 50% from three-point land (5-10) and 0-3 at the line, while Temple was shooting 38.5% in field goals (15-39), 41.7% in threes and 90.9% from the charity stripe (10-11).

IN THE THIRD QUARTER . . .
Neither team scored until the 8:07 mark in the third quarter until Elise Hill fielded a pass from Paige Bradley in the backdoor and scored on a layup.

Tulsa's defense got stingy and held Temple scoreless to open the second half. After going 0-for-6 from the field, the Owls called a timeout to restart their offense while up 45-37 on the Hurricane with 7:11 on the board.

Tulsa couldn't take advantage of Temple's cold streak as the Owls finally drained a three at 6:37. Then, they followed with eight unanswered points in a 90-second span and continued to stifle TU's offense, going up 56-39 at 5:21.

Hadley Periman came through with her second 3-pointer at 2:58 to snap both teams' scoring drought. Paige Bradley then made a pair of layups, one of which on a stolen fast break to bring the game back to within 10 points at 56-46 with 2:17 on the clock.

A pull-up jumper and a triple by Temple's Tarriyonna Gary highlighted the final two minutes of the quarter, sending Temple ahead by 15 at 61-45 to end the third period.

IN THE FOURTH QUARTER . . .
Hadley Periman started the fourth and final frame with her 10th point of the game with a driving layup. Back-to-back treys by Paige Bradley right after fueled an 8-0 scoring run to force a Temple timeout. The effort brought the Hurricane back to within striking distance at 61-54.

After the media break, Elise Hill drained a deep three from Mady Cartwright to bring the score even closer. A four-point difference at 61-57 was all that separated Tulsa and the Owls with 6:48 remaining.

Temple finally scored its first points of the quarter when Tarriyonna Gary drew a shooting foul and made the subsequent free throws.

The Owls then took another 10-point lead at 67-57 with a pair of consecutive Jaleesa Molina layups before Bradley sent in another backdoor layup at 3:17. It moved her to 15 points on the day.

Delanie Crawford scored her first points of the second half with back-to-back 3-pointers off smart passes from Bradley and Mady Cartwright, putting the score at 67-65 Temple with just 2:11 to go.

After the referee crew checked the replay on a foul call, Temple's Kaylah Turner barely beat the shot clock with a made jumper in the paint and saw her teammate Jaleesa Molina score on a fast-break layup to put the Owls up 71-65 with 32 seconds remaining. Tulsa called a short timeout in response and called a 60-second timeout a few seconds later after a rebound at 0:23.8.

Crawford received the in-bound from Bradley and sent the ball to the arc to Jade Clack, who swished Tulsa's 12^th 3-pointer with 19.7, making the score 71-68. After Temple called timeout, the Hurricane's man defense forced a five-second turnover on the in-bound play and called a timeout with 19 seconds to play.

The offense couldn't get a good look right away, so Head Coach Angie Nelp called another timeout, this time with 8.2 left. After the break, Crawford's heroics shined through once more as she netted her fifth triple of the game, tying the contest at 71-71 with 5.5 seconds left to go.

The Hurricane's joy was short-lived as Temple's Amaya Oliver rebounded her teammate Kaylah Turner's missed go-ahead shot and put the ball back into the net for the game-winner with a tenth of a second to go. Tulsa couldn't do anything with the time remaining, allowing Temple to escape with the game, 73-71.

GAME NOTES

The series between the Hurricane and Owls moved to 12-5 Temple.
Tulsa set a season high in 3-pointers with 13. Five came from Delanie Crawford, three from Paige Bradley and two from Hadley Periman.
Tulsa assisted 22 of its 28 field goals.
22 assists is the second-most by the team this season, tying last game's mark (Charlotte, Jan. 8).
Tulsa lost the rebound battle 40-31. It led to 14 second-chance points for Temple.
Senior Delanie Crawford had her sixth 20+ point game of the season and 22^nd of her career with 21 points on the day.
It was Crawford's 16^th game this season scoring in double-figures and 75^th of her career.
Redshirt junior Paige Bradley recorded her fifth double-digit point contest this season with 15 points. It's the eighth contest of her career with 10 or more points.
Junior Hadley Periman produced 10 points for her sixth game this year in double-figures and seventh of her career.
Crawford's 21 points moved her to 1,506 career points. She needs seven points to pass Larrissa Williams' (2006-10) 1,512 points for fifth on the all-time Hurricane points chart.
Crawford also had five three-pointers Saturday, moving to 230 career threes. She needs just four more treys to surpass the Tulsa career record of 233 set by Kelsee Grovey (2012-16).
Crawford stands at No. 6 in the all-time field-goals-made career chart for TU with 518 after recording eight on Wednesday. She needs 52 more to pass Temira Poindexter's (2021-24) 569 FG for fifth.
Crawford has 278 career assists after recording six against Temple. She's now 10^th in TU assist history, passing Ashley Clark's (2012-16) 277 assists.
Lastly, Crawford is at an .816 free throw percentage, the 10th-best in Tulsa history. She also has the 10^th-most free throws under her belt with 240, just two shy of Tandem Mays (2003-07), who had 242.