The Guru’s March Madness Report - Day 7: Temple Eliminated in American 59-51 by UTSA; Delaware Falls in CUSA to Top Seed La Tech; Idaho Wins Big Sky

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

 Poor shooting led to Temple’s demise in round two of the American Conference Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., the seventh-seed Owls (15-17) losing 59-51 Wednesday afternoon to sixth seed UTSA (15-15) and with a sub .500 record besides elimination from a shot at the automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament that comes with the conference championship, invites to the WBIT and WNIT are also off the table.

Unlike the last two seasons where Temple had strong finishes and advanced to the conference semifinals giving hope of something to build on next time around turnovers were a major obstacle down the stretch to drag the Owls to a lower seed.

UTSA in Thursday’s quarterfinals will face preseason favorite South Florida which is seeded third.

Holding a one-point lead at the half Temple suffered a major collapse in the third quarter shooting 14.3 percent from the field that included six blanks from distance.

The Owls also suffered on the boards, UTSA dominating 44-27.

“It’s a tough way to lose our game and end our season,” said Temple coach Diane Richardson. “There were some things we pointed out in the locker room, and it was a tough loss, tough loss for us. And we’ll go back and go home and get ready for the next one.”

Back in the opening weeks of the season Richardson was upbeat over a challenging non-conference schedule to prepare her team for a deep run knowing the American is a one-bid situation regarding the NCAA tournament.

One positive is there are no seniors which improves the experience factor if no key players enter the portal or suffer injuries over the summer.

“I think we still have a very talented team,” Richardson said. “We’ve had some ups and downs, and we’ve had some injuries this year, but I stand by my team.

“I know we didn’t have any seniors, so the experience portion of it, but I still stand by my kids and I think we have a very good team, and we’ll be ready for next year.”

Eight seed Delaware (13-19) went down quickly in round two of Conference USA in Huntsville, Ala., in its debut season playing top seed Louisiana Tech (25-5), suffering lopsided scoring to the opposition the first three quarters and ultimately a 72-43 wipeout.

No one scored in double figures for the Fighting Blue Hens, Trinity Vance and Ande’a Cherisier just missing with nine points each.

In the Guru’s group of 13 locals, Villanova, despite its blowout loss to No. 1 UConn in the Big East championship, is considered a lock to have its name called Sunday night when the 68-team NCAA field is announced at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

Drexel, the third seed in the Coastal Athletic Association tourney in Washington, has a double bye into Friday night’s quarterfinals, playing the fourth and last game at 8:30 p.m. against an opponent to be determined Thursday between Hampton and Elon.

The Dragons, if they don’t earn an NCAA automatic bid, could land in the WNIT.

No. 23 Princeton, the top seed in the Ivy League, plays four-seed Brown Friday at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y., and advancing to Saturday’s title game against Columbia or Harvard should be enough to gain an at large bid if the Tigers don’t win another title.

In the Patriot League semifinals Thursday night, Lehigh is at Navy while Army is at Holy Cross with the highest surviving seed hosting Sunday’s noon championship.

Saint Joseph’s is under consideration from both the WBIT and WNIT while La Salle is under consideration by the WNIT.

On Wednesday, top seed Idaho beat Montana State 60-57 to win the Big Sky title, on Thursday Stephen F. Austin and McNeese will play for the Southland crown, and on Friday Maine and host Vermont will vie for the America East title bringing the total to 19 champions securing NCAA bids.

On Saturday eight more conferences will crown champions leaving the remaining four to do so Sunday afternoon.