Temple cruises into the American Conference tournament behind a balanced attack
The Owls found success on both ends of the floor in their regular-season finale, and their bench stepped up to power their scoring.
Temple entered its regular-season finale against Florida Atlantic on Saturday afternoon urgently seeking momentum before the American Conference tournament.
The Owls were fresh off a 46-point loss to South Florida on Tuesday, but they quickly put that result in the rearview mirror.
Temple grabbed control of the game midway through the first quarter and never let go. The Owls held a double-digit lead for almost the final 30 minutes, and, by the time the dust settled, they cruised to an 84-55 victory over FAU (13-17, 7-11 American) at the Liacouras Center.
“A great win at home in the last regular-season game to get us prepared heading into the conference tournament,” said head coach Diane Richardson. “I thought we played well. I thought our defense was great, and we all played together.”
Temple (14-16, 8-10) will be the No. 7 seed in the American tournament and will play against 10th-seeded Tulane on March 10 (3 p.m., ESPN+).
Statistical leaders
Temple brought a balanced scoring attack against FAU, as 10 of the 11 players who saw action had at least one basket. Kelian Cedano led the way off the bench with a career-high 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting. Fellow guard Brianna Mead also reached double-digits off the bench with 11 points. Starters Savannah Curry and Saniyah Craig added 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Against FAU, Temple’s bench accounted for 41 points after struggling for much of the season.
“We were all sharing the ball, and everyone was contributing,” Mead said. “That helped us get momentum, and now we’re ready to go into the conference tournament.”
FAU struggled to contain Temple’s offense as it shot 49.2% from the field, including 45% from three. Temple won the rebounding battle, 49-31, and forced 14 FAU turnovers. FAU shot just 28.3% from the field, and guard Destyne Jackson led it with 11 points.
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What we saw
Temple missedits first four shots but soon found a groove. Temple made it a priority to attack the paint and it built its offensive success on layups. It ended the first quarter on a 17-2 run, and 12 of those points came from layups. Defensively, the Owls held FAU scoreless for the final 2 minutes, 50 seconds of the first quarter to help build a 21-9 lead.
Temple continued to hold FAU at arm’s length throughout the second quarter with at least a nine-point lead. FAU started to focus on the Owls’ paint success, so they stepped beyond the arc for a trio of timely threes. Temple entered halftime with a 38-24 advantage and was shooting 45.5% from the field.
“We knew we had a very strong post presence compared to other teams, so we just wanted to exploit that and keep going until they changed something up,” said forward Felicia Jacobs. “We saw that it worked really well, which kind of helped us gain the lead.”
Temple outscored FAU by 17 points in the third quarter as it pushed its lead to as many as 31 points and then coasted through the fourth.
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Game-changing play
Temple held a comfortable 14-point lead after of halftime but was looking to put away any hopes of an FAU comeback. It had dominated the paint all game, but it turned to three-point range to make the game lopsided.
Guard Tristen Taylor found herself wide-open for a triple and connected to put Temple ahead, 47-26, its largest lead at the time, at the 7:11 mark of the third quarter. A few possessions later, FAU left Taylor alone from three, and she made it pay once again to give Temple all the momentum it needed to cruise to a win.
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