Nick Jourdain's double-double leads Temple past Tulsa, 67-58

Temple completed its season sweep of Tulsa Saturday with a 67-58 win at The Liacouras Center.

The Owls, who improved to 13-7 overall and 6-3 in the American Athletic Conference, were led by freshman forwards Nick Jourdain and Jahlil White in their rematch against the Golden Hurricane. Jourdain posted his first career double-double, tallying 15 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, while White had nine points and a career-high nine assists.

A former point guard at New Jersey’s Wildwood Catholic High School, White has emerged as a point forward for Temple.

“Passing was something that I was always good at,” White said. “Being versatile and making the right play is something that my coaches have been stressing to me.”

Jourdain, a former tight end and defensive end in high school, said he uses those skills to help him rebound.

Jourdain is continuing to show why he deserved to replace junior forward Sage Tolbert III in the starting lineup, adding two blocks and a steal to his stat line.

“Everyone’s been pouring confidence into me,” Jourdain said.

Temple controlled the glass early on, hauling in seven rebounds - five offensive - in the first four minutes of the game and finishing with 14 offensive and 36 total. However, as head coach Aaron McKie said earlier in the week, that is largely due in part to how many shots the Owls miss.

Temple shot 25 for 61 from the field Saturday, including just 4 of 23 from three-point range.

Because of its defense, Temple owned the first half. Locking in on the defensive end with a block and two steals, and holding Tulsa to one for seven shooting during the stretch, the Owls went on a 12-2 run after the under-16-minute media timeout, going into the under-12:00 up 13-6.

Graduate forward Jeriah Horne found some success posting up against Nick Jourdain after the under-12:00 timeout. His four points on the block helped Tulsa knot things up at 15 with 7:52 left in the first half. That was about it for Horne on the day, as he went four for nine shooting.

Coming into the game, McKie said his team focused on shutting down Horne and sophomore guard Sam Griffin, who shot 3-for-15 Saturday.

“[Tulsa] needs those two to win games,” McKie said. “Limit them and see if somebody else can beat us.”

BIG MAN ISSUES

With those two in check, it opened things up for senior forward Rey Idowu, who caught fire early in the second half and never cooled down. Idowu finished with 21 points, shooting a perfect 8-for-8 from the field.

Temple center Arashma Parks was overwhelmed, showing flashes of what happened against Marcus Weathers at SMU. Temple still hasn’t solved it’s problem with post defense, and it appears as though the coaching staff doesn’t see freshman transfer center Emmanuel Okpomo as the solution in junior center Jake Forrester’s absence. Okpomo played one minute Saturday, went to the free-throw line and missed both shots.

McKie described Idowu’s performance as a direct result to the game plan of limiting Horne and Griffin.

“Every action has a reaction,” McKie said.

STOUT DEFENSE

Neither team shot well, with Temple shooting 40.9% to Tulsa’s 44%. However, Temple won the turnover battle, turning it over just seven times to Tulsa’s 16, and used those opportunities to generate buckets on the other end, tallying 19 points off turnovers.

Temple did a good job of suffocating the ball, forcing Tulsa to burn several timeouts due to trapped players. The Golden Hurricane were down to their last timeout with 13:10 remaining in regulation.

TULSA'S COMEBACK EFFORT

Tulsa buckled down on defense in the second half, going on a 7-0 run going into the under-12:00 media timeout. Temple hadn't scored in 4:09 at that point, as the Owls saw their lead cut to two points.

With 9:58 remaining, Tulsa finally tied the game at 40 and took the lead at 7:41 on an Idowu and-one conversion.

“They got themselves back in by going inside,” McKie said. “We got comfortable.”

A 7-0 run inside four minutes put Temple back on top, led by White’s vision and Jourdain’s efforts on offense. Redshirt freshman Damian Dunn fouled out with 1:25 left, but it proved to be inconsequential. Tulsa began to play the late-game fouling game, falling short of its comeback effort.

Temple will play next on Monday at USF at 7 p.m. The game was rescheduled after COVID-19 issues within the Bulls’ program forced the postponement of the game that was originally scheduled for Jan. 22.