NEW ORLEANS — Tulane University Women’s Basketball (13-8, 3-5) dropped its home midweek contest 68-59 to American Athletic Conference foe Temple (8-11, 3-4) on Wednesday night.
The Green Wave battled to the end to make a bid for a comeback, but the early deficit and rebounding struggles proved to be too much to overcome.
Kyren Whittington carried the load for the Green Wave scoring a season-high 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting and knocking down a career-best six three-pointers in the game. She also added three assists and a pair of steals to her stat sheet. Marta Galic and Anijah Grant also posted double figures in the contest each finishing with 10 points.
Temple was led by Tiarra East with 20 points to go with 11 rebounds. Aleah Nelson followed close behind for the Owls with 18 points and five assists. Tarriyonn Gary and Brittan Garner rounded out to top performers for Temple with 14 and 10 points, respectively.
Despite shooting 66.7 percent in the opening quarter Tulane still found itself with a deficit at the end of the frame. A 13-2 run by Temple gave the Owls the lead 20-11 with two minutes on the clock, but a 7-0 response from the Wave to close the quarter put Tulane down 18-20 at the end of the first.
The defense for both squads stepped up in the second quarter as Tulane turned the Owls over five times but was unable to convert those turnovers into points. The Wave was outscored 9-13 in the frame to hit the half trailing 27-33.
In the third quarter Whittington scored eight-straight points before setting up Anijah Grant for a layup to make it 10-unanswered for Tulane and give the Wave its first lead since 9-7 in the first. The final seven points of the frame went to the Owls as Tulane faced a 41-46 deficit heading into the fourth quarter.
The momentum stayed with Temple in the final frame as a 14-0 scoring run put the Wave down 19 with 6:21 to play. Tulane did not go down quietly battling back with an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to eight, but unfortunately was unable to complete the comeback falling 59-68.
Up next, the Green Wave will look to rebound on the road against Houston on Sunday. Tipoff between Tulane and the Cougars is set for 1 p.m. CT.
