Temple picked up a big 59-55 win over South Florida at The Liacouras Center Saturday afternoon, but it wasn’t without a battle down the stretch.

Forward Ines Piper fought through contact to score on a layup and give the Owls a two-point lead with 32 seconds remaining.

Then USF went down the court and forward Romi Levy looked to find a teammate with a cross-court pass, but Owls guard Tarriyonna Gary intercepted it, ran the floor and found Aleah Nelson for an easy layup, putting the game out of reach.

Temple improved to 13-10 overall and 7-4 in the American Athletic Conference. The Owls now sit in fourth place in the conference standings behind Tulsa (7-3) and North Texas and UAB, who are tied at the top with an 8-3 league record.

Temple head coach Diane Richardson walked into the post game press conference thrilled.

“I love when we win!” Richardson said as she strutted into the Al Shrier media room. “It was a great team defensive effort. The third quarter kind of slipped away a little, but they were poised, bounced back, knew we had to get stops, and they played tough, tough defense, and that’s how we won the game.”

As Richardson mentioned, the third quarter was a struggle for the Owls, but the issues started near the close of the first half.

Temple held USF scoreless until 1:32 remained in the second quarter and jumped out to a 14-point lead as a result. But in the final 90 seconds of the quarter, the Bulls rattled off seven straight to cut the Owls’ halftime lead to seven.

“I hadn’t seen that before and I don’t want to see that again,” Richardson said of the final moments of the second quarter. “I think we kind of sat back on our heels a little bit. Instead of playing defense like we normally did, we watched [Levy] put up a couple of threes.”

Temple’s issues continued out of the half with the team shooting just 6 of 18 in the third quarter and missing all four of its three-pointers while USF took advantage and scored with its three-headed monster of Levy, Evelien Lutje Schipholt and Carla Brito.

Levy, who finished with a game-high 26 points on the day, and Brito each scored eight points in the third period, while Lutje Schipholt scored seven, leading the Bulls to a four-point lead to close the third.

Temple guard Tiarra East carried the load of the offense for much of the game, finishing with 21 points and six rebounds, but it was Gary down the stretch who came up clutch for the Owls.

Gary scored all eight of her points in the fourth quarter, including a contested three from the far right wing with two minutes remaining to give the Owls some life after a two-minute scoring drought.

“Every time she shoots, we think it’s going in, and that was good to see that ball going in,” Richardson said of Gary’s deep three. “And then of course her steal at the end of the game, it was awesome.”

The win was a big one for Temple in an American Athletic Conference picture that has nine teams with winning conference records.

Richardson said she wants her team to remain focused on closing out the regular season before the conference tournament in Fort Worth, Texas next month.

“We’ve got to take one game at a time,” Richardson said. “I don’t want to look ahead, and I know that the top four have a double bye, but you gotta get through games before we can even think about that.”

Temple’s next game is also a big one. The Owls will play on the road at first-place UAB at 7 p.m.

Watch the postgame press conference with head coach Diane Richardson and guard Tiarra East here.