American Athletic Conference foes will collide when the Temple Owls (12-8) play the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (14-7) at Liacouras Center. Action begins at 7:00 pm ET on Thursday, Feb. 4 and can be seen on ESU and ES3.
The Owls enter this game hoping for similar success after topping South Florida 70-63 on Sunday. Quenton DeCosey was the game’s leading scorer with 30 points on 6-for-11 shooting. The Golden Hurricane, meanwhile, are coming off a 62-48 win against Tulane on Saturday. Brandon Swannegan claimed his first double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Over the last five games, DeCosey has taken his game to another level for the Owls, averaging 19.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 2.2 steals, 0.6 blocks, and 2.0 three-pointers.
Based on historical performance heading into this one, ball security could play a key role in the matchup. Temple commits the second-fewest miscues in the nation (TO% of 14.0%), while the pesky defense of Tulsa causes the 25th-most (opponents’ TO% of 22.0%). The Golden Hurricane should also expect to protect the ball well. They rank 30th at avoiding errors (TO% of 16.0%). Conversely, the Owls force the 53rd-fewest turnovers in the nation (opponents’ TO% of 16.7%).
Notes
The Tulsa Golden Hurricane have a defensive rating of 98.0 (ranked 76th), while the Temple Owls have an offensive rating of 104.3 (ranked 205th).
Tulsa has an average field goal percentage of 43.6%. Temple is a solid 5-3 when opponents have a similar or higher field goal percentage.
The Temple Owls rank lower for their field goal percentage (320th) than they do for their effective field goal percentage (306th), but the Tulsa Golden Hurricane have a better FG% ranking (201st) than eFG% ranking (206th).
Temple ranks 34th in the nation with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.38, while Tulsa ranks 75th with an A/TO of 1.23.
Temple has forced an average turnover percentage of 16.7% this season. Tulsa is an even 4-4 when its TO% is 16.7% or higher.
