Temple has Tulsa in its sights
Last season a true nemesis to Temple's basketball team was Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane beat the Owls in both meetings and played a major role in keeping Temple from earning an NCAA berth. (The Owls were the 69th team in a 68-team tournament).
Last season a true nemesis to Temple's basketball team was Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane beat the Owls in both meetings and played a major role in keeping Temple from earning an NCAA berth. (The Owls were the 69th team in a 68-team tournament).
Temple, 0-4 lifetime against Tulsa, will host the Golden Hurricane in Thursday's 7 p.m. American Athletic Conference game at the Liacouras Center.
Both teams are tied for second place, along with Cincinnati, in the AAC with 6-3 marks, although that is really like being tied for first. That's because first place SMU is ineligible for the conference and NCAA tournament.
Last year's second loss to the Golden Hurricane, a 55-39 defeat at Tulsa, was the Owls' lowest-scoring game of the season. After last year's two losses, Temple players said they owe Tulsa one this time.
"Definitely," said Temple leading scorer Quenton DeCosey, who leads the Owls with a 16.4 scoring average. "We feel SMU and Tulsa were two teams, if we could have gotten one win against each we could have been in (the NCAA tournament)."
Tulsa (14-7) is the most experienced team in the AAC, with nine seniors. The strength is in the backcourt, where 6-foot-3 senior Shaquille Harrison averages 15.1 points, and 6-3 senior James Woodard averages 16.2.
"The guy who is the key, who stirs the drink, is Harrison, who is a very good basketball player," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "He and Woodard have a sixth sense for each other and play very well together."
Temple is coming off Sunday's 70-63 win at South Florida, when DeCosey scored a career-high 30 points. That salvaged the second game of a road trip that began with a 64-61 loss to an East Carolina team that is just 2-7 in AAC play.
Temple got a big boost with the return of 6-8 senior Jaylen Bond, who had eight points in 24 minutes off the bench against USF after missing the previous two games with a back injury.
Dunphy says it hasn't been decided whether Bond will start against Tulsa.
"We will sit down and talk and see what is best," Dunphy said. "Whatever his role, he should contribute a lot."
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