Temple men’s basketball team finished the 2021-2022 with a 69-60 loss to Tulane in the AAC tournament.
It was a slow start for the Owls, one that no amount of second-half work could bring the team back from.
Nothing seemed to go right for the owls offensively or defensively. In the first half, the Owls only shot 18.8% FG on 32 attempts, their worst first-half shooting performance of the season. The Owls trailed at halftime with a score of 36-27.
Head coach Aaron McKie says the Owls did not stick to their game plan at all.
“Just not going and attacking the basket, us kind of laying the balls out and they did a good job of blocking our shots,” McKie said.
Just shortly after the start of the second half, Damien Dunn, Temple’s offensive leader, was taken out due to an ankle injury. There is no word yet on what the injury was or how severe it is.
The struggles continued for Temple after he was taken out, and things never seemed to click. Tulane was able to keep the Owls out of the paint and force them to take twenty-six 3-point attempts. Tulane’s head coach, Ron Hunter, said his team planned to execute this way and knew it would be a key to the Green Wave’s victory.
“Our goal was to make them shoot 30 threes. I don’t know what they finished up with but if teams shoot 30 threes against us, we’re going to win most of the games.”
This draws to a close Aaron Mckie’s third season at the helm of the basketball program. After the game, Mckie said he was confident about the future of the program.
“This is a different environment. You’re playing for keeps now. You lose, you go home. You win, you keep playing and this is all new to them. They’ll be here again and hopefully, when they’re here again, they’ll be on the other side of it.”
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