NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane University men’s basketball team suffered a 65-57 setback to Temple on Saturday afternoon inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.
Jaylen Forbes led all Tulane (6-4, 1-4 AAC) scorers with 14 points. Joining Forbes in double figures was teammate Sion James, as he finished with a season-high 13 points, connecting on 4-of-8 shots from the field coming off the bench. James also pulled down five rebounds and dished out a team-high four assists while committing no turnovers.
Kevin Cross also made a strong contribution off the bench as he added eight points and pulled down five rebounds. Tulane’s bench held a 23-9 scoring advantage.
As a team, Tulane continued to take care of the basketball, as it committed just five turnovers, while forcing the Owls into 14 miscues. Temple (3-3, 2-3 AAC) outrebounded the Green Wave by a 48-32 count and outshot Tulane 35-28 percent.
“I feel like we were getting okay looks, but they just weren’t going down for us,” James said.
Green Wave associate head coach Ray McCallum served as the team’s head coach. Tulane was without head coach Ron Hunter, as he was forced to miss the game due to COVID-19 protocol.
“This was a challenging week preparing for this game without our leader in Coach Hunter, but I thought the guys did a great job of locking in and competing today,” McCallum said. “We have to score the ball and we didn’t do that today, especially to start the second half.”
Temple came out hot to open the game, as it jumped out to an early 15-4 advantage four minutes into the game. The Green Wave responded quickly by posting a 10-3 run over the next five minutes to trim the Owls’ lead to four with 10:58 to go in the first half.
Tulane would later close to within two points on two separate occasions later in the half, but were not able to take the lead in the opening 20 minutes. The Owls took a two-point lead into halftime, 28-26. Forbes led all Green Wave scorers with 10 first-half points.
Temple opened the second half strong, as it held the Green Wave without a point for the first five minutes of the second half and jumped out to a 13-point lead (39-26) with 15:26 to go in the game.
“We just didn’t have a rhythm to start the second half and we missed a lot of open shots,” McCallum said. “We didn’t capitalize on some transition opportunities and that just wears on your defense.”
Despite the Green Wave’s slow start to the second half, Tulane remained within striking distance throughout the second half, as it climbed to within 10 points with 6:42 remaining. Tulane made one last push with under four minutes to go in the game, as it mounted a 7-0 run and closed Temple’s lead to seven with 1:29 to go.
The Green Wave would get no closer, as Temple connected on three free throws to secure the win.
Temple guard Damian Dunn led all scorers with 18 points. Teammate Jake Forrester added 17 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
Up next for Tulane is another conference home matchup, as the Green Wave welcome SMU on Wednesday, January 20. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
{Press release courtesy of Tulane Athletics}