Three days after having one of the best openers in the program’s history, Thursday could not have been more of a different story for Temple’s women’s basketball team.
The Owls fell 68-45 to Georgetown Thursday night at The Liacouras Center and struggled at both ends of the floor.
“Obviously, Georgetown played a tough game,” Temple head coach Dianne Richardson said. “They came in here wanting it. They stepped up their game, and we didn't respond. We have some things to work on.”
After scoring 109 points Monday, the highest total in 40 seasons, Temple managed less than half of that against Georgetown. The Owls shot 31 percent (17 of 54) from the field and committed 16 turnovers that led to 15 points for the Hoyas.
Georgetown (2-0) played with a little extra fight against the Owls, as the Hoyas recently lost their head coach Tasha Butts to breast cancer on October 24.
“I get emotional because she was a friend of mine,” Richardson said of Butts, “and I know she's proud of her team.”
The Owls never led against Georgetown, digging themselves into a hole early they could never escape.
Temple fell into a 24-8 deficit after the first quarter with costly early turnovers from Demi Washington and Tiarra East, giving the Hoyas momentum they carried throughout the entirety of the matchup.
Despite a couple of short runs throughout the first half, Temple struggled to respond and found itself trailing 39-17 at the half.
"I didn't think they did enough,” Richardson said of her team’s response. “One of the things we can't do is get punched first. We have to have that mentality."
Temple did not go down without a fight, as the Owls cut the Hoyas’ lead in the second half to 18 at one point, but never got any closer.
One of the bright spots in the Owl's loss to the Hoyas was the offensive play from forward Rayne Tucker. She finished with 12 points on 5 of 10 shooting to go with five rebounds. Tucker was unable to play last season after transferring from Towson with the rest of Richardson’s staff due to the NCAA transfer rules.
Kelsey Ransom led Georgetown with 16 points, shooting 7 of 15 from the field and collecting eight rebounds and five assists.
After a strong performance in the season opener, Temple’s frontcourt struggled, and the Owls were outrebounded by 38-22 in the loss.
"We knew they really crashed the boards,” Tucker said. “We didn't put a body on them and box them out."
Defensive miscues
Despite forcing 19 turnovers, Temple had trouble stopping backdoor cuts and struggled with picking up the Hoya players when they were moving off the ball, giving Georgetown easy looks close to the basket all game long.
“I just think we have to do a better job following the scout,” Tucker said. “The coaches did a really good job preparing us for this game and that was on the scout. Just making sure we execute all the time, just in making sure we pay attention and be aware of it, and if somebody does get backdoor be able to help them.”
The Hoyas shot an efficient 53 percent (28 of 53) from the field against the Owls, including 5 of 11 from three-point range.
After Temple trailed early in the first quarter, Richardson switched from a man to a zone defense. The problem was, no everyone switched the defense.
“We were getting a little confused,” Richardson said. “We slowed them down that initial time we did it, but then they missed the assignment a second, and a third and a fourth time.”
Despite her offensive performance, Tucker struggled with missed defensive assignments on Brianna Scott and Kaliyah Myricks on off-ball movement with backdoor cuts and coming off of screens.
Stars struggle
The Owls' top players disappeared against Georgetown, as their top three scorers from the win over Delaware State of Jaleesa Malina, Tiarra East and Ines Piper combined for just seven points in the loss, shooting 3 of 13 from the field.
Aleah Nelson, Temple’s top scorer from last season, also struggled against the Hoyas’ stout defense. She shot 2 of 10 from the field and had two turnovers in the loss.
Nelson, Molina, Piper, and East combined for seven of the Owls’ 16 turnovers.
Up next
Temple will look to bounce back from the loss when it hosts Bucknell on Saturday at The Liacouras Center. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Front page photo by Grace Crosby.
