The Guru Report: Nelson Gets 1,000th Milestone and 33 Overall to Lead Temple Past Duquesne

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA — On a Friday night when Towson transfer Aleah Nelson was the show, the Temple defense also played a large role in preventing another disastrous late collapse as the one that occurred Sunday at Penn enabling the Owls to claim a 66-60 win over Duquesne at home in the Liacouras Center.

Heading into the game, the senior from Baltimore, claiming later she had no awareness of how far she was from her 1,000th point, almost got it done in the first half, scoring 21 of the 22 with a missed shot from deep as time expired and Temple (5-6) holding a 35-28 lead.

Nelson’s moment than came in the middle of a 15-3 run in the third, scoring in the paint on a pull up jumper with 8:09 that left the score 38-30 on the way to the Owls’ biggest lead at 49-31.

But just as Sunday in the fourth quarter when a 15-point lead began dissolving, it looked like another repeat might be threatening, Duquesne (8-3) moving within four on Ayanna Townsend’s foul shot at 60-56 with 1:31 left.

But this time while the outcome was still undecided, Temple, though still missing foul shots, came up with several key turnovers to to top the squad from Pittsburgh that was once as conference rival when the Owls played in the Atlantic 10.

“It was a great team win, I just want to say that regardless of my personal achievements,” Nelson said, being allowed to make the opening statement usually uttered from the head coach. “Duquesne was a good team, it was a statement game, we came here to play, we kind of battled back. Like ‘Coach Rich (Diane Richardson) said, `Don’t let what happens in this game be like what happened together.

“So we kind of rallied together and got stops and that’s exactly what was needed so it was a great team win today.”

Temple got eight steals, three from Tarriyonna Gary, and out dueled the Dukes in points from turnovers 19-12, while Tiarra East and Denise Solis each grabbed 10 rebounds to help the Owls’ 44-40 advantage on the boards.

Townsend had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Duquesne, helped by 9-of-11 on the foul line, Naelle Bernard scored 10, while three other players neared double digit in scoring, Amaya Hamilton collecting nine points, Precious Johnson and Megan McConnell each collecting eight. McConnell also grabbed nine boards to approach a double-double night.

“I’m really proud of her, I’ve watched her grow up,” said Richardson, noting that after seeing Nelson for the first few times, “I knew she could be a great piece for any time I coached. It was great for me to see and be here and I’m proud of her. She was teeny but tough. I recruited her hard.”

On what was behind her big game, Nelson revealed, “I had a conversation with ‘Coach Rich and asked what could I be doing to help the team more, and she said, `You should be shooting the ball more.’

Nelson was 11-for-23 from the field and fired 7-of-17 three-balls.

“I think that’s what it was, my confidence, even when shots missed. I remember coming down the floor in that fourth quarter and ‘Coach Rich saying a couple of days ago, `You’ve got to have the will to win and put the team on your back.’ It’s a refuse to lose mentality I had and the team had. I’m just glad we got the win.”

In those final minutes Ines Piper made several key plays on both ends.

“I thought we played great, defensively, today,” Richardson said. “I knew Duquesne was going to come in and and shoot  threes, we contested the threes, we were moving our feet today, defensively, we turned them over and protected the ball, we turned them over 16 times. That was a good night for us, defensively.

“That’s kind of that resiliency we’re working on to hit back when you’re knocked down. And Duquesne came at us and we didn’t fold. So it’s good to see that.”

The coaches wore blue as part of autism night awareness support and Richardson said going forward one game in ensuing years will be used for that event on the schedule.

Temple finishes its non-conference slate Wednesday at noon and then begins its American Athletic Conference schedule after the break for Christmas, opening with a visit on Dec. 30 from Memphis and then traveling to Tampa on Jan. 3 to play conference favorite Memphis.

Asked where the team is now in terms of what she projected when succeeding Tonya Cardoza as the new Owls coach, Richardson said, “I would like us to have done better but I also understand where we were and what had to be done.”

Temple was the only local team in action Friday in what was an overall lite night, such as is the annual situation approaching the end of final exams period across the NCAA.

Nationally noted: Of the games on the radar composite for Friday, No. 3 Ohio State went from a slim three-point halftime lead at home on Albany, an America East forecast contender, to a lopsided 82-57 win, while in the Beach Classic, the first of a two-day, four-team set of pre-determined opponent rounds, Southern Miss edged UC Irvine 50-45, and host Long Beach State topped Dartmouth 69-55.

Two other ranked teams that played from the Associated Press women’s poll saw No. 7 North Carolina at home wipe out SC Upstate 89-47, while newly-ranked No. 22 Kansas at home beat Tulsa 81-62.

You can look at the previous blog previewing the rest of the weekend games but repeating for local interest on Saturday, La Salle is at South Florida at 2 p.m. on ESPN+ in Tampa, and Rider begins Metro Atlantic Athletic Competition (MAAC) play with a Western New York road swing, playing at Canisius at 1 p.m. on ESPN3 Saturday and at Niagara, the only local game that day, Monday night.

And that’s the report.