Temple survives Tulane in double overtime, 86-76
At first glance, Temple’s 10-point margin of victory over Tulane seems somewhat reasonable, given the fact that the Green Wave came to the Liacouras Center Saturday as a five-win team.
How the Owls got there was an entirely different story altogether.
After surrendering a 13-point lead and once again living and dying by the 3-point shot, Temple needed double-overtime to finally hold off Tulane, 86-76, in the Owls’ final regular-season home game. Eleven of Shizz Alston’s game-high 25 points came in the second overtime period, and he scored eight of those at the free-throw line.
Tulane (5-23 overall, 2-14 American Athletic Conference) overcame 30.3 percent shooting from the floor by making 23 of its 33 free throws. Temple (15-15, 6-11), on the other hand, chucked up 36 3-pointers and hit just 10 of them, and the Owls only started going to the foul line with any consistency in overtime, when the Green Wave had to start fouling.
Even for a .500 Temple team that has struggled since impressive early-season wins over Florida State and West Virginia, Saturday’s game was way too close for comfort against a Tulane team with the second-worst conference record and worst overall record.
But if fans were looking for some interesting storylines and late-season drama to make up for what has largely been a disappointing season, Saturday had them covered.
Temple first had to erase a late five-point deficit with less than two minutes to play in regulation with the help of a 3-point play from Mark Williams (20 points) and a putback by Alston. Tulane’s Cameron Reynolds, who led the Green Wave with 21 points, lost control on his team’s final regulation possession, and Alston nearly won it on a 30-foot heave that missed as the buzzer sent the game to overtime.
That first overtime period didn’t disappoint in terms of some uncanny moments. In the closing moments of that stanza, Reynolds slipped on a wet spot on the floor and turned it over, and Alston hit two foul shots to give the Owls a 71-68 lead with 5.4 seconds to go.
Temple coach Fran Dunphy called a timeout and said the plan was to foul coming out of the break.
“We had said we wanted to pick them up as soon as we can,” Dunphy said, “not allow a go-by, and if somebody’s going by you, chest them or whatever – but don’t let them get a full head of steam going toward the basket.”
But on a day when not much went according to plan, the next play followed suit. Tulane’s Malik Morgan got the inbound pass and had some space ahead. Alston got screened, guard Mike Robbins got out late in an attempt to defend him, and Morgan drained a three from about 30 feet away to force the second overtime.
“We called a timeout so he could let us know of what defense we were in, how we were going to guard the ball screen or how we were just going to communicate better,” forward Dan Dingle said of his coach’s decision to use a timeout before Morgan’s game-tying shot. “We had one to burn, so why not take it? Usually they’re great in transition so if they just push the ball, maybe dribble handoff, dribble handoff, they’ll usually wind up with pretty good shots off their transition, so I think (Dunphy) wanted to settle them down and make them play in more of the halfcourt setting.”
Instead, Morgan had too much room to shoot, even from that long range.
“Shizz kind of backed off him,” Dunphy said, “and obviously Morgan made a great shot.”
Once the second overtime started, Temple finally looked like a team that realized it was better than one of the worst teams in the conference, starting the period with a 7-0 run behind a Quinton Rose dunk, an Alston 3-pointer and an Obi Enechionyia (14 points) dunk. Tulane never got closer than six the rest of the way.
Saturday did provide some memorable moments for the outgoing seniors, who were honored before the game and given framed game jerseys. Robbins, who played at nearby Lower Merion High School and spent a semester at St. John’s and took classes at Community College of Philadelphia before enrolling at Temple in the spring of 2014, scored seven points, all of which came in the first half.
In fact, all seven of Robbins’ points came in the opening moments of the game when Temple jumped out to that 13-point lead. Robbins, who earned a scholarship prior to this season after coming to the program as a walk-on, hit a 3-pointer with 15:35 left in the first half that gave the Owls a 17-4 cushion.
Although he’s played double-digit minutes on five other occasions this season, including 14 against SMU after missing the previous five games with an injury, Robbins’ 22 minutes Saturday were a career high. After the game, Robbins said he got the itch to play basketball again after watching his older brother Gregg, who also played at Lower Merion and then at Richmond, in a summer-league game.
“I came to Temple,” Robbins explained, “with no vision of playing for the team. … Just seeing (Gregg) him play, something hit me. And the next day, I ran a couple miles and I actually threw up, and I looked in the mirror and I was like, ‘Is this for real?’
“And so from then on, I got back in shape and the rest is history, I guess.”
Williams, the 6-foot-8 Cleveland native who played his high school basketball at Maryland’s Montrose Christian, admitted his Temple career has had its share of ups and downs, but his 20 points Saturday were a season high and four off his career high of 24.
“I appreciate the way Mark played, Dan played and our whole team,” Williams said as he sat next to Dingle and Robbins while answering questions postgame. “The most important thing was just getting the win. Closing out home is very important to us, but ultimately the season isn’t over and we needed to win today.”
Temple now has a full week off before it closes out the regular season next Sunday in Tampa at USF before the American Athletic Conference tournament starts four days later in Hartford. Winning four games in four days up at the XL Center is the only way the Owls can return to the NCAA Tournament.
“This hopefully gives us some momentum,” Dingle, who collected 13 points and eight rebounds in 47 minutes, said of Saturday’s win. “Right now, we’re not worried about the wins and losses and what our record says. We’re just worried about making strides toward winning the conference championship.”
Listen to the postgame interviews with Dunphy, Dingle, Robbins and Williams here.