Temple women rebound from a pair of tough losses to pull off a gritty home win against Memphis

Last week, Temple had an opportunity to capitalize on its most significant road trip this season against two of the top women’s basketball teams in the American Athletic Conference. Instead, the Owls lost to North Texas and Texas-San Antonio, despite having double-digit leads against both.

On Wednesday, the Owls bounced back with a 74-66 win over Memphis at the Liacouras Center, although they didn’t make it easy on themselves. Temple (13-9, 7-4 AAC) worked its way to a 17-point lead early in the third quarter, but things started to go awry as Memphis cut Temple’s lead to just four with 15 seconds to go.

“It was a tough game,” Temple coach Diane Richardson said. “Memphis came to play. We got ahead early and had to fight a little bit at the end of the game trying to maintain that lead. But we came out with the win. They didn’t put their heads down.”

Jaleesa Molina, Anissa Rivera, and Kaylah Turner finished with 12 points for Temple. Tarriyonna Gary had 10.

Memphis (5-16, 3-7) was led by guard Tilly Boler, who finished with a game-high 27 points on an efficient 11-of-19 shooting from the field, including 4 of 6 from three-point range.

After losing big leads against North Texas and UTSA, it was natural for players and coaches to worry about it happening again against Memphis.

“In the huddle we just said, ‘We can’t go 0-3 the same way,’” Rivera said. “So we just dug down and played Temple basketball.”

The third quarter was the worst of it for Temple. After the Owls jumped out to a 17-point lead a minute into the period, Memphis chipped away behind a 10-for-18 performance to outscore Temple, 25-17, capitalizing on eight Owls turnovers.

The Tigers carried over that momentum behind Boler’s 13 points in the final frame. But the Owls held off the Tigers thanks to Turner knocking down key free throws late.

“All through the game, I kept saying, ‘We’re ahead. We’ve got to stay ahead. Let’s not let them get back in the game,’” Richardson said. “Then they came out with a press and turned us over a little bit. We’ve got to stay poised. We’re better than that against the press.”

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Ever since Richardson’s arrival to North Broad, she’s talked about how Temple’s attack is an equal-opportunity offense. While it may struggle sometimes, it was on display against Memphis.

Not only did Temple have four players reach double digits, but all nine of the Owls who played scored. Eight of Temple’s nine scorers had at least five points.

“That’s really good for us,” Richardson said. “The confidence that some of these kids coming off the bench [have] coming into a tight game allows them to score. That’s been our mantra, that equal-opportunity offense. I want them to not be afraid to score the ball and not be afraid to shoot. It also helps against the other team because they don’t know who to double-team.”

The Owls will host second-place South Florida (15-8, 8-2 AAC) on Saturday (2 p.m. ESPN+).

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