The Guru NCAAW Conference Tourneys Report: Temple Ends Regular Season With Sixth Straight Win; Atlantic 10; ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big 12 Among Wednesday Openers.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Temple is rolling into the American Athletic Conference tournament, the Owls finished the regular season Tuesday night with their sixth straight victory 60-54 at Charlotte in Halton Arena in North Carolina.

The run is the best by Temple (19-10, 13-5) since 2016-17.

The Owls had already clinched a double bye on senior night with the fourth seed but every win counts since the deeper they go down in Fort Worth, Texas at Dickies Arena in the AAC, who’s complete pairings were announced late Tuesday night, the better the chance should they fall short of the title and NCAA automatic bid of landing a spot in the second annual WBIT or long-running WNIT.

Against the 49ers (9-20, 4-14), a team once a rival when both played in the Atlantic Ten, Temple trailed by eight points in the second quarter before beginning to click and cutting the deficit to five at the break.

The Owls on a 7-0 run got their first lead before Charlotte grabbed it back heading to the final period.

Neither team could hit from the field in the closing four minutes but Temple hit from the line eight straight times and Kaylah Turner’s pair with 21 seconds left secured the win.

Tiarra East stayed hot with 18 points, and was 5-6 from the line where the Owls differentiated with a near perfect 20-22 to Charlotte’s 10-13.

Turner had 11 points and Tarriyona Gary picked up ten.

The league has a makeup game between preseason favorite South Florida, the third seed, at Tulane, Thursday, the game postponed when New Orleans was hit with a snowstorm last month.

All the games through the semifinals will be on ESPN+ with the title game on March 12 airing 7 p.m. on ESPNU.

The action opens Saturday, though that game between No. 13 Florida Atlantic and No. 12 Charlotte is at 1 p.m. at The Pit in nearby Denton, Texas.

The winner meets No. 5 Tulsa Sunday at 3 p.m., and Temple in the quarterfinals meets that winner Monday at 3 p.m.

On the other side of that half of the bracket, top seeded UTSA on Monday at 1 p.m. meets the winner between No. 9 Rice and No. 8 UAB and that winner meets Temple in the semifinals if the Owls take their opener, otherwise the team that beats the Owls gets the nod.

On the other side of the bracket with double byes. No. 2 North Texas joins South Florida.

Meanwhile two other locals get started Wednesday, 15th seeded Rutgers, which grabbed the 15th and final spot Sunday, edging already eliminated Penn State, opens in the powerful Big Ten in Indianapolis meeting No. 10 Nebraska 25 minutes after the 3:30 p.m. opener between No. 12 Washington and No. 13 Minnesota concludes in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home of the WNBA Indiana Fever with Caitlin Clark and NBA Indiana Fever.

The other Big Ten game Wednesday has No. 11 Iowa with  Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen meeting No. 14 Wisconsin after the Rutgers game, all three airing on Peacock.

The Rutgers winner meets No. 7 Illinois Thursday, at 6:30 p.m., and the Iowa winner meets No. 6 and nationally ranked Michigan State after that game while Thursday’s other games begin with No. 8 Oregon meeting No. 9 Indiana at noon followed by No. 5 Michigan playing the Washington-Minnesota winner, all games Thursday and through the semifinals on the Big Ten network.

No. 1 and second ranked Southern Cal opens at noon Friday, followed by No. 4 Maryland with Villanova transfer Christina Dalce, while No. 2 UCLA, ranked fourth, goes at 6:30 p.m., followed by No. 3 and nationally ranked Ohio State.

Sunday’s title game is at 4:30 p.m. on CBS.

In the Atlantic 10, Wednesday, No. 14 La Salle meets No. 11 VCU, the team it upset Saturday on senior day  at 5 p.m., all games Wednesday on ESPN+.

Fourth-seeded Saint Joseph’s plays Friday at 1:30 p.m. against either No. 12 George Washington or No. 13 Loyola Chicago, which open Wednesday, or No. 5 Rhode Island, which meets that winner, all Friday games on Peacock.

Lehigh, which claimed the No. 1 seed and will host a quarterfinal Monday in the Patriot League, finishes Wednesday night at 6 p.m. in Hamilton, N.Y., while Lafayette, which will host one of two Saturday openers, will be at Loyola Maryland 7 p.m. in Baltimore, both games on ESPN+.

The Patriot League field will be announced Wednesday night.

Drexel, currently second in the Coastal Athletic Association, has a few more home games and is done its home slate unless it lands in the WBIT or WNIT, but will be in the area Thursday night looking for a sweep of Delaware at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark at 6:30 p.m. (FloSports).

Rider needs to win at Canisius Thursday, the first of a bunch of steps required to get the 10th and last seed in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) tournament next week at Jim Whalen Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Penn hosts Princeton on senior day at The Palestra Saturday. A win or Brown loss at Yale puts the Quakers into the fourth and final slot for next week’s Ivy Madness at Brown in Providence, R.I., though they are likely in with a tie because the first two are a wash so it will go to a third, which is who has the better NCAA Net on Sunday morning and Penn has a wide lead in that scenario.

Villanova as the fifth seed meets Marquette the fourth seed Saturday afternoon in a Big East quarterfinal at The Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. The tournament starts Friday with three first-round matches involving the six through 11 seeds.

Conference play got under way Tuesday in the Horizon League and Sun Belt.

Besides the Big Ten, the other power four leagues also open play Wednesday.

In the ACC, which like the Big Ten, had the bottom three teams not making the cut, has three games on the ACC Network.

No. 12 Boston College meets No. 13 Syracuse at 1 p.m., in Greensboro, N.C., followed by No. 10 Virginia meeting No. 15 Pitt at 3:30 p.m., and No. 11 Stanford meeting No. 14 Clemson at 6:30 p.m.

In the SEC in Greenville, S.C., No. 9 Tennessee, ranked 18th, meets No. 16 Texas A&M at 11 a.m.; No. 12 Georgia meets No. 13 Arkansas at 1:30 p.m.; No. 15 Missouri meets No. 10 Mississippi State at 6 p.m.; and No. 11 Florida meets No. 14 Auburn at 8:30 p.m., all on the SEC Network.

In the Big 12 in Kansas City, all in this round on ESPN+, No. 12 BYU meets No. 13 UCF at noon; No. 9 Colorado meets No. 16 Houston at 2:30 p.m.; No. 10 Cincinnati meets No. 15 Arizona State at 6:30 p.m.; and No. 11 Kansas meets No. 14 Texas Tech at 9 p.m.

Other conferences beginning Wednesday are the Big South in Johnson City, Tenn.; Ohio Valley in Evansville, Ind.; and the Summit League in Sioux City,S.D., while the Sun Belt second round occurs in Pensacola, Fla.

The Mountain West finishes up regular season and should also be announcing pairings in the next 24 hours.