Another preseason poll that placed the Owls in the back half of the American Athletic Conference gave Temple women’s basketball coach Diane Richardson and her team a little more incentive to take on an us-against-the-world mentality heading into the season opener against Richmond.
The Owls still have 28 more opportunities to prove their doubters wrong, but their 17-point, second-half comeback still left them a little short in a 79-72 loss to the Spiders Monday night in the back half of the men’s and women’s season-opening doubleheader at the Liacouras Center.
Tiarra East scored 23 points, 13 of which came in the second half, and Tarriyonna Gary added 18 with the help of four three-pointers, but Richmond guard Rachel Ullstrom, the reigning Atlantic 10 Sixth Woman of the Year, scored a game-high 32 points and was clearly the best player on the floor in carrying the Spiders to a win and staving off Temple’s comeback. The 6-foot-1 junior barely missed, going 9 of 11 from the floor, 4 of 5 from three-point range and a perfect 10-for-10 from the free-throw line to go with six rebounds and five steals.
After Temple outscored Richmond by six in the third quarter, a three from East put the Owls ahead 67-66 with 3:30 left to play, but Ullstrom answered with a three of her own a little more than 30 seconds later to regain the lead for the Spiders. A Gary three put Temple back ahead at 72-71 with 1:33 to go, but the Owls never scored again. Addie Bunk’s layup 17 seconds layup was the start of an 8-0 Richmond run that closed out the game.
The Spiders outrebounded the Owls by 39-26 to help overcome their 25 turnovers.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Richardson said. “We were down 17 and fought back, and just fell short. The first half was tough. We didn’t rebound the ball at all, and the second half it was like we just woke up. We outscored them, outrebounded them and outplayed them in the second half. But again, can’t dig a hole like that.”
Richmond shot 59% from the field and took a 43-29 lead into halftime. Five players scored five or more points for the Spiders as they slowed Temple’s offense to a halt and systematically worked to find good shots on the offensive end.
Gary’s 10 first half points were able to keep things somewhat close, but the reigning Atlantic 10 champions appeared to be too much for Temple, as even the scoreboard malfunctioned and shut down on the Owls, signaling a disappointing evening.
Missed opportunities were part of Monday night’s story as well. With Richmond holding a 75-72 lead with 59 seconds to go following an Ullstrom layup, sophomore guard Tristen Taylor and East missed shots at the other end for Temple, but offensive rebounds from transfer forwards Amaya Oliver and Anissa Rivera kept the possession alive.
Just 13 seconds after Oliver’s offensive board, Taylor found herself wide open in the corner for what could have been a game-tying three, but the officials blew the whistle, determining she had stepped out of bounds and turned the ball over to the Spiders.
As Richardson said, the first half was tough for the Owls. Richmond’s offensive attack included creative off-ball movement that helped generate easy looks for the Spiders, and they knocked down 59% of them through the first two quarters. To make matters worse, Richmond outrebounded Temple by a 24-9 clip in the first half.
The Owls’ second-half response against a program that won the A-10 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament was promising and perhaps something Temple can build upon over the next week before it plays again next Tuesday at Delaware. The Owls’ effort increased on the defensive and sparked the offense. Temple forced 16 second-half turnovers and got 13 points from them.
“In the second half we turned them over 16 times, but we started really late with that aggressive defense,” Richardson said. “That was good for me to say and know we could do that, but we have to start early."
Despite the second-half improvements, Ullstrom was just too good for Richmond, as she scored 26 of her 32 points in the second half.
Oliver, a Loyola Marymount transfer, was productive in her Temple debut. The 6-1 forward contributed 14 points and eight rebounds and looked aggressive getting to the rim and creating shots for herself.
Beyond East, Gary and Oliver, the remainder of the roster showed mixed results, with no other player hitting double digits. Redshirt freshman Drew Alexander made her only three-pointer in her seven minutes of action, and freshman guard Savannah Curry didn’t attempt a shot in three minutes in her college debut. Taylor scored six points on 2 of 7 shooting in her 29 minutes, and Rivera played 30 minutes off the bench, shooting just 2 of 8 from the floor while contributing seven rebounds.
“I thought the starting five with the mixtures of the newcomers worked well together,” Richardson said. “They’re still learning each other, but I think they did well together. I subbed some [players] in and maybe they weren’t ready, so we had to sub them back out. So hopefully as we go along, they will be able to step up and have a little confidence.”
“It’s encouraging to know that we can play, because that second half we definitely played Temple basketball,” Richardson added. “The first half, I don’t know if it was first game jitters or what, but we weren’t as aggressive, but now they know in the locker room that our second half is the way we need to play basketball.”
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