City Six basketball recap: Temple comeback falls short in loss at Tulsa, La Salle routed at Saint Louis

It’s been tough sledding for the Temple men’s basketball team on the road against Tulsa. The Owls entered Tuesday night with an 0-6 record at Tulsa including 0-5 in the Reynolds Center.

Things weren’t much better on Tuesday night. The Owls trailed by eight at halftime but got within three twice in the first five minutes of the second half. Each time, Tulsa had an answer.

The biggest response was a Golden Hurricane 10-0 run that pushed the lead to 13. If you stopped watching after that run, then you may haven’t watched much Temple this season. For some reason, the Owls get more production when trailing.

Temple (4-9, 3-9 American Athletic Conference) went on a 20-8 run after the seven-minute mark and cut a 17-point deficit to five. But it was too much to overcome as the Owls fell 72-66 at the Reynolds Center, to extend their losing streak to five games. Temple had beaten Tulsa by nine points on Jan. 26 at the Liacouras Center.

It was Temple’s first game this season with a different lineup. Leading scorer Damian Dunn tweaked a knee against Cincinnati and was held out on Tuesday.

“It kind of hurt us a little bit,” Khalif Battle said. “I wish we could’ve had him out there, but it’s OK. We’re going to keep on fighting regardless.”

» READ MORE: Villanova and Jay Wright look ahead to how COVID-19 will challenge the Big East and NCAA tournaments

Battle started in his place and scored a team-high 21 points and seven rebounds. Jeremiah Williams added 11 points and four assists.

Jake Forrester was haunted again by foul trouble. In his 20 minutes, he was a plus-8. He fouled out with 10 points and six rebounds.

Temple went on its run in the last seven minutes after it started taking care of the basketball. The Owls had 18 turnovers before the midway mark of the second half. They finished the game with 19 turnovers. Tulsa (10-9, 7-7) had seven turnovers and a 19-8 advantage in points off turnovers as a result.

“They didn’t even pressure us,” Owls coach Aaron McKie said. “We were just careless with the ball. Our guys are getting valuable experience, and hopefully they’re learning from the situation.”

La Salle pulled off arguably its biggest upset of this season when it beat Saint Louis at Tom Gola Arena earlier this month. The Billikens wasted no time returning the favor on Tuesday night, jumping out to a 19-point lead in the first half on the way to a 78-57 loss at Chaifetz Arena.

La Salle never got back within single digits after Saint Louis’ early run.

The Billikens dominated the glass early. Before Jhamir Brickus made a three with 11 seconds left in the first half, the Billikens had as many second-chance points (20) as La Salle had total points on the scoreboard.

Brickus was the bright spot offensively. He scored a career-high 22-points on 10-of-19 shooting. Jack Clark added 13 points.

» READ MORE: Drexel athletic director Eric Zillmer stepping down after 22 years

St. Joseph’s game Wednesday night at George Washington has been postponed by the Atlantic 10 Conference while both programs continue their return to play protocols.

The conference said the Hawks will host La Salle Saturday at Hagan Arena. St. Joe’s originally scheduled home game that day against Davidson will be rescheduled on a date and time to be determined.

The Colonial Athletic Association announced that Drexel’s two games Saturday and Sunday against Towson at Daskalakis Athletic Center have been postponed due to COVID-19 protocols within the Towson program. A decision to reschedule the games will be made at a later date.