When K.C. Keeler was hired as Temple’s football coach in 2024, his goal was to make the Owls into American Conference contenders.
In his first season, Temple finished 5-7 (3-5 in the American). The Owls missed a bowl game for the sixth consecutive season but showed they are heading in the right direction.
Now, it’s back to the drawing board. Keeler said the first step was to get Temple’s key players from this season to remain on the roster. The Owls have lost serval starters to the transfer portal in years past, but that wasn’t the case this offseason.
Temple didn’t lose a single starter to the transfer portal and kept its core group of players to ensure some continuity heading into 2026.
“We’re probably one of the only [Group of Five] schools in the country that didn’t lose a single starter,” Keeler said. “And that was a lot of work in terms of making sure that they saw the vision moving forward and we were all comfortable with getting this thing done in the world of revenue share we now live in — you have to work through some things. But to get all of our starters to come back … and there’s a number of our starters that were highly coveted prizes out there in the open market.”
Temple was close to making its first bowl game appearance since 2019, under coach Rod Carey. This time, the Owls were a few points away from being 7-5.
Temple lost to Navy, 32-31, after Midshipmen quarterback Blake Horvath ran 51 yards for a touchdown with 39 seconds remaining. The Owls lost to Army, 14-13, when the Black Knights held the ball for the final nine-plus minutes.
“We’re building something special around here,” guard Eric King said. “We were two points away from being 7-5 and being in a bowl game. So, a completely different culture in the facility and throughout the organization. In order to keep building on that, you don’t want to have to bring in 60 people in the portal. You want to keep the guys who have played and who have been through the system and who understand what this new brand of football is about.”
King is one of the main players returning to Temple next season. He had no intention of leaving, either.
The Owls kept the offensive line intact. Alongside King, left tackle Giakoby Hills, who initially was the backup to Kevin Terry, became a starter after Terry suffered a sprained knee ligament on Aug. 9. Hills never gave up the job.
After the redshirt freshman started every game this past season, Hills was on the radar of some Power Four schools. However, Hills and Temple worked out a multiyear deal in December, which made him one of the highest-paid players in the Group of Five.
Temple’s biggest returner, though, is tight end Peter Clarke, a London native who finished with 483 receiving yards and six touchdowns and earned a second-team all-conference nod in 2025. Clarke wanted to stay with the same team that gave him a chance three years ago.
“I had nothing before I came to Temple,” Clarke said. “I’m a foreign guy who a lot of schools didn’t want to take a chance on. Temple gave me hope. They promised me a dream that I could chase here, and they fulfilled every single promise.”
Clarke became an instrumental part of Temple’s retention plan, hosting recruits on visits and speaking about his journey to the team at alumni events. It has given him the chance to connect with potential teammates and higher-ups at the university.
Temple tight end Peter Clarke finished with 483 receiving yards in 2025.
The tight end had been a highly coveted player, with Power Four programs attempting to sign him. However, Clarke rejected those offers, which came with more money, to remain an Owl.
“When a guy like [Clarke] chooses to stay, maybe another guy who could make another $5,000-$10,000, somewhere else [will stay as well],” general manager Clayton Barnes said. “When someone’s leaving thousands of dollars on the table, that really sends a message to the rest of the locker room: ‘There’s a reason why I stayed. There’s reason why you should stay.’”
Temple center Mohamed Keita entered the game against South Florida on Saturday with 5½ minutes left and the Owls clinging to a four-point lead. Forwards Babatunde Durodola and Jamai Felt had both fouled out, leaving the 7-foot-1 big man as Temple’s only option for the rest of the game.
Keita delivered. He knocked down two free throws with 30 seconds left, then came through with the decisive bucket for the Owls (14-8, 6-3 American).
Derrian Ford missed a jumper and Keita flew in for the tip-in with six seconds left. USF (14-8, 6-3) had a chance, but a desperation heave by Isaiah Jones wasn’t enough as Temple held on for a 79-78 win at the Liacouras Center.
“It was Coach [Adam Fisher] who told me to crash the board when [Ford] shot it,” Keita said. “So I just crashed, and then I’m happy it came my way and then scored.”
The Owls went nearly six minutes without a field goal at the end of the game, but Keita’s heroics helped them stay in the conference race. Temple is in a three-way tie for third place in the American with Florida Atlantic and USF.
“We all know if your shots are not falling, keep shooting and just keep playing defense,” said guard Aiden Tobiason, who scored a game-high 22 points. “That’s something we harp on the most, because that’s something you can control.”
Owls guard Masiah Gilyard shoots the ball against South Florida.
Temple’s depth has been tested, but the Owls rely on guard Masiah Gilyard and the 6-8 Durodola, with Keita coming in sparingly.
Those three helped Temple stay afloat on Saturday. Gilyard scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half and Durodola finished with seven points, seven rebounds, and a team-high five assists.
“[Gilyard] is a guy that does a lot of dirty work, getting offensive rebounds,” Fisher said. “I think any time you’re a player and you see the ball go in early on, an easy one, it makes the basket look a little bigger to you. I thought he’d made some big shots. But again, there’s just a trust like our guys, whoever’s out there, we believe in. I thought his minutes tonight were fantastic.”
Next up
Temple visits East Carolina (6-15, 1-7) on Saturday (noon, ESPNU).
The project, directed by Melanie Page, was featured at Temple on Thursday night. Page shared a teaser of her documentary about women’s basketball greats who have come through the Philadelphia area over the years.
The event included a panel discussion with Temple coach Diane Richardson, Temple Hall of Famer Marilyn Stephens, Philly basketball legend Yolanda Laney, and former Army coach Lynn Arturi-Chiavaro. Page’s first documentary, about women’s basketball in the Washington, D.C., area, also was screened.
“I’m a student of basketball, but that was how I was raised in my upbringing from 5 years old,” Page said. “Seeing the Washington Mystics, it’s never left me. And here I am today, being able to tell more stories and bring the youth up to speed.”
The Philly documentary will feature prominent local women’s basketball figures like Laney and Stephens. The DMV documentary starred Richardson from when she was the head coach at Riverdale Baptist School and Towson and an assistant at Maryland, along with Temple associate head coach Wanisha Smith, who played for Richardson at Riverdale Baptist. (Richardson also was an assistant at two other Washington-based universities, American and George Washington.)
Page started the project during the pandemic in 2020. A DMV native, she began her storytelling there, and it gained some traction in 2021, when she released clips of her interviews from the documentary.
The next step was to bring it to Philly. Arturi-Chiavaro played for the city’s first professional women’s basketball team, the Philadelphia Fox of the Women’s Professional Basketball League, which only lasted from 1978 to 1981.
Stephens was a ball girl for the Fox and starred at Temple from 1980 to 1984. She scored 2,194 points and grabbed 1,516 rebounds, ranking second in school history in points and first in rebounds. She was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1995.
“You can’t erase our history,” Stephens said. “We got to just stand strong and educate the generations that’s come behind us and give them the information about women’s basketball.”
Richardson and Laney also emphasized the importance of not letting the history of women’s basketball be forgotten.
Laney helped lead Cheyney State (now known as Cheyney University) to the first-ever NCAA women’s national championship game in 1982. Her daughter, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, plays for the New York Liberty. Richardson is not from the area, but has become one of the biggest advocates for women’s basketball in the city since being hired at Temple in 2022.
“We heard a question for what would you name the Philadelphia WNBA team … I would call it the Philadelphia Cradle,” Laney said. “Because we are cradling basketball history in this area and we have a different style of play in Philadelphia basketball.”
With a WNBA franchise coming to Philly in 2030, Richardson and Laney believe the documentary will help keep the city excited.
“Doing things right now like what Melanie is doing and just opening people’s eyes to the explosion of women’s basketball is really important,” Richardson said. “We’ve got to catch that lightning in a bottle and do it now because five years from now, we’re going to be too late.”
Stephens, Arturi-Chiavaro, Richardson, and Laney have a hand in the history and future of women’s basketball. Page wants to keep educating folks about their impact.
“This is the standard,” Page said. “This is how it should be. This should be the norm of what we are doing. People should know Yolanda Laney’s name off the top of their heads. They should know Marilyn Stephens. … It should definitely be the standard. That’s the message.”
It was easy to imagine the 2025-26 St. Joseph’s season as being a lost one on Jan. 3, after the Hawks went six minutes without a basket in crunch time and blew an 11-point second-half lead to Davidson to fall to 8-7 overall and 0-2 in the Atlantic 10.
In fairness, that’s what it had been to date. This wasn’t glass-half-empty thinking. Consider what had transpired in the four previous months. Former coach Billy Lange abruptly left in September, and St. Joe’s turned to Steve Donahue, whom Lange had hired as associate head coach after Donahue was fired by Penn.
Who would stay? Who would leave? It was a little late for the players to reasonably find somewhere else to go. Lange had built a roster capable of competing in the upper half of the A-10, but then came a 2-3 start. By mid-December, leading scorer Deuce Jones, a La Salle transfer, was off the team.
The Hawks went 3-for-22 from three-point range in that Davidson loss. By that point, only one of their eight victories had come against a team ranked inside the KenPom top 200, and even in that one they needed a frantic comeback and a wild shot from Jones before the buzzer to beat Temple. Two of the eight wins were against Division III teams.
St. Joe’s has won five of six since then. What changed? The shots are falling more consistently, which always helps, and there’s more of a sense of togetherness when you watch the Hawks than in games earlier in the season.
But never question the power of a meeting. The Hawks had one in the aftermath of that Davidson loss in Donahue’s office, where six players entered with change in mind.
“When we looked at ourselves in the mirror, we saw something that we didn’t like,” said senior guard Derek Simpson, who scored a season-low six points in that Davidson loss but has scored 19.2 points per game in the six since.
“We got our feelings out,” Simpson said. “We were able to tell each other how we felt.”
St. Joe’s coach Steve Donahue celebrates with fans after a victory over Dayton on Saturday.
St. Joe’s (13-8, 5-3) has been nearly perfect since. The only blemish came against a Virginia Commonwealth team rated 46th at KenPom (St. Joe’s is 157th), and the Hawks could have won that game. They got 20 points from Jaiden Glover-Toscano to help knock off Dayton one game later, and the St. John’s transfer is starting to show more flashes of why he was a high-major prospect in the first place. He had the highlight of the night Tuesday when he threw down a one-handed slam, one of the Hawks’ 12 dunks in a blowout win over lowly Loyola-Chicago.
Next on the schedule for St. Joe’s is a game Saturday against its crosstown rival, La Salle, that looks a lot more interesting than it did a few weeks ago.
That’s because the best win of the young Darris Nichols era in Olney happened last week when the Explorers started Dayton off on its Philadelphia trip from hell by jumping out to a 33-8 lead and held on for dear life in a 67-64 victory.
That came on the heels of a win over St. Bonaventure.
The Explorers (7-14, 3-5), who are much healthier now than they were earlier in the season, lost Wednesday night at Fordham, but they’ve hung in against some of the A-10’s elite and play a style that won’t be fun to go against in the conference tournament.
Or if you’re a St. Joe’s team looking to keep the train on the tracks Saturday.
Temple announced more than 2,600 attendees at its Wednesday night home game vs. Charlotte, but it didn’t take a census veteran to realize that number was way overinflated. Half of that number might have been generous. Some students showed up, but many of them were gone after the iPad giveaway was doled out.
The Owls probably deserve a little more support. That aforementioned heartbreaker vs. St. Joe’s at the Big 5 Classic was followed by a seven-game winning streak. Then, during the week when assistant coach Bill Courtney died suddenly, Temple nearly beat two of the best teams in the American Athletic Conference.
Temple coach Adam Fisher (right) reacts to an official’s call during the loss to Charlotte.
The Owls should have closed out a win over Charlotte on Wednesday, despite being without key starter Gavin Griffiths. They led by nine with six minutes left before losing in overtime. But they’re 5-3 in conference play (13-8 overall) and just one game back of first place.
They host a South Florida team on Saturday night that is 6-2 and in a four-way tie for first (8 p.m., ESPN2). It’s White Out night at the Liacouras Center.
An ode to Dan McQuade, a man who loved basketball
Philadelphia is a lot worse off without Dan McQuade, who died of cancer at 43 years old this week. McQuade, the son of longtime Daily News assistant sports editor Drew McQuade, was a singular writer who wrote for various publications — Defector, Deadspin, and Philadelphia Magazine among them — with flair and fun and with more curiosity than most.
Dan wrote about a lot of things, but he sure loved Philly basketball, and wrote about it often, like when he went to the Catholic League final in 2023 and implored people in a Defector article to go out and see more basketball games in person. Or when he wrote about attending a La Salle home game and witnessing an economic professor light the silly smoke machine at Gola Arena. Or when he went to a Big 5 doubleheader at the Palestra, where he attended many games as a former Penn student and sports writer, and wrote a compelling case for little kids playing basketball being the best version of the halftime show.
Each Friday, Inquirer photo editors pick the best Philly sports images from the last seven days. This week, we’re avoiding the weather and staying inside with plenty of hoops action — from the Big 5 to the Sixers. We’re also in the thick of Flyers season, so we won’t leave the ice totally behind. But first, Gritty.
Gritty pumps up the home crowd during the Flyers’ loss to the New York Islanders earlier this week. On Sunday, the team will host its annual Flyers Charities Carnival.Flyers defenseman Emil Andrae gets checked by Islanders right wing Maxim Tsyplakov during Philly’s 4-0 loss on Monday. The Flyers had won just two of their last 11 games heading into Thursday’s matchup with the Boston Bruins.Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson stops the puck during the first period against the Islanders. The team has two more games before the Olympic break.Ersson (right) stands in his crease after Islanders center Jean-Gabriel Pageau (left) scored a third period goal during Monday’s loss. The Flyers were in a three-way tie for fourth in the Metropolitan Division heading into Thursday’s game against the Bruins.Sixers center Joel Embiid scored 38 points Saturday against the New York Knicks, but the team lost, 112-109.New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby (center) passes the ball from the floor as Sixers forward Dominick Barlow (right) and guard VJ Edgecombe defend.Sixers guard Kelly Oubre Jr., runs into New York Knicks and former Villanova guard Josh Hart in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s tight loss in South Philly.Jared McCain, who had his best game of the season Tuesday, celebrates a three-point basket in the fourth quarter of their win over the Milwaukee Bucks.Sixers center Adem Bona blocks New York Knicks guard Miles McBride’s dunk attempt in the second quarter on Saturday.Drexel Dragons guard Eli Beard (right)) drives to the basket against Northeastern Huskies guard JB Frankel (second from right) during during the Dragons’ 83-78 win at Daskalakis Athletic Center on Saturday. Drexel has won five of its last six games.St. Joe’s guard Jaiden Glover-Toscano dunks during the second half of the Hawks’ 81-74 win over Dayton University at Hagan Arena on Saturday. Glover-Toscano scored 20 points in the win.Temple’s guard Aiden Tobiason, who scored 16 points, reacts during overtime of the Owls’ 80-76 loss to Charlotte at the Liacouras Center on Wednesday.
Temple had a chance to break its tie for second place in the American Conference on Wednesday night against Charlotte. The Owls trailed once in the second half and at one point held an eight-point lead.
It wasn’t enough, however, as the 49ers stormed back to hand Temple an 80-76 overtime loss at the Liacouras Center.
The Owls (13-8, 5-3) were within striking distance with 17 seconds remaining in overtime. Then Charlotte guard Dezayne Mingo drilled a three-pointer that pushed the 49ers (12-9, 6-2) lead to five and squandered the Owls’ comeback hopes as they missed their final four shots.
Temple coach Adam Fisher reacts to an official’s call against Charlotte on Wednesday.
“We won the first half, but the second half, we had a couple lapses,” said Temple coach Adam Fisher. “This is a team we knew [to] try to keep them in the 60s. Great credit to Charlotte. There’s a reason they’re 6-2 [and] towards the top of the league.”
Statistical leaders
Guard Derrian Ford led Temple with 21 points, while guard Jordan Mason added 20.
Charlotte center Anton Bonke stole the show with a career-high 25 points, breaking his previous high of 20, which he set against Temple on Dec. 30. Mingo also had 19 points off the bench while dishing out 10 assists.
Mason took charge of the Owls’ offense, and 14 of their first-half points were three-pointers.
Temple’s defense had to deal with the 49ers’ size and height advantage. When Bonke attacked the paint, the Owls found themselves in foul trouble. They finished with 20 personal fouls.
“Good job getting into some pick-and-roll spaces and they throw it up to him, and he’s huge,” Fisher said. “Great credit to him. He had 20 against us out there last time, when we won, we knew ‘Hey, they can’t make threes.’ When Harrison scores double figures, I think they’ve won every game. So they got a lot of weapons.”
However, Temple did limit the American’s third-best team in shooting to make 9 of 24 attempts in the first half, going 4 of 9 in three-pointers. Charlotte shot 53.8% in the second, but went 3-for-12 in three-pointers.
Temple kept up with Charlotte and trailed once in the second half and took an eight-point lead with under seven minutes remaining. But that advantage didn’t last.
Game-changing play
Temple had possession with 30 seconds remaining in regulation, leading 68-66, with a chance to put the game to rest. Guard Masiah Gilyard snagged a steal and it seemed like Temple would secure a victory.
Gilyard attempted a dagger three-pointer, but it went off the mark and after a scramble for the loose ball, it got into the hands of Mingo. He found guard Damoni Harrison, who converted a layup to send the game to overtime.
“It looked like almost a broken play,” Fisher said.
Temple never recovered, as it went 1-for-6 from the field in the extra period.
Up next
Temple will host South Florida (13-7, 5-2) on Saturday (8 p.m. ESPN+).
Temple coach Diane Richardson is not from Philadelphia. She spent much of her life in the Maryland and Washington region, which included several coaching stints in the area.
When Richardson was hired at Temple in 2022, she got a taste of what the Big 5 — and sports in general — mean to the city. But seeing how Philly responded to the women’s side of the Big 5 intrigued Richardson. It made her want to grow women’s basketball even more.
Richardson has become an advocate for professional women’s basketball and hopes to bring more eyes to the game, with a WNBA franchise set to come to Philadelphia in 2030. In the meantime, Unrivaled will make its first trip out of the Miami area and play at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Friday.
“It really sets the tone for what Philly has to come,” Richardson said. “The WNBA is coming here in a few years and to have Unrivaled come here, the first place that they have come to, it really shows the support that’s here for women’s basketball and how Philly’s grabbing ahold of it. So I’m excited about it. I’m really excited about the representation. I’m excited for the young girls in Philly to be able to see that up close and personal.”
Basketball was not always Richardson’s calling card. She was named one of the top female executives in the country in 1995, but she left her post as founder and chief operating officer of American Security Corporation to pursue a different passion, mentoring young girls through basketball.
Part of Richardson’s inspiration to make that change came from former college basketball coach and current color commentator Carolyn Peck. Richardson crossed paths with Peck during a recruiting visit with a player while Peck was at the University of Florida and Richardson was coaching at Riverdale Baptist School in Upper Marlboro, Md. She was enamored by Peck’s drive to help young athletes.
“I saw the care she had with her student-athletes and how she wanted to project women’s sports,” Richardson said. “I was just amazed and inspired that when you can be in a position like that, you can actually inspire other people. I left corporate America to coach because I saw her example. And I love what I’m doing now.”
Richardson arrived on North Broad before the 2022 season and quickly got to work, not just with her new program, but with women’s basketball overall.
Richardson bought into the Big 5 Classic, and when the format changed before the 2024-25 season, she was all for it. The the tripleheader has been held at Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion the first two seasons. While Richardson believes the first two iterations have been successful, there is more to be done.
“I think we could use some more exposure,” Richardson said. “We’re playing at Villanova and the guys are playing downtown [at Xfinity Mobile Arena]. And I think if we put enough money into it, enough marketing into it, and we can market it locally and get a lot of people there.”
Richardson also has her team engage with the community in women’s basketball events. The Owls held a camp with Skilladelphia, a basketball clinic for young girls, and attended a WNBA watch party with Watch Party PHL to see a game that featured Jonquel Jones, Natasha Cloud, and Kahleah Copper.
Temple attended a WNBA watch party in July at Libertee Grounds.
A key part of Richardson’s involvement over her four years at Temple has been the involvement of Jones and Copper. Jones, who plays for the New York Liberty, is Richardson’s adopted daughter and makes the trip to Philly whenever she can.
She acted as a tour guide when the Owls went to the Bahamas in November. Copper, who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, is from North Philly and has been a great friend of the program. She attended many practices during Richardson’s first two seasons.
New York Liberty star Jonquel Jones (second from left), the adopted daughter of Temple women’s college basketball coach Diane Richardson, was courtside to watch the Owls play the Drexel on Dec. 7.
Having professionals involved with the program has been beneficial for the team. It’s an opportunity to see what basketball can do for them.
“Coach Rich is really great at networking,” said junior guard Kaylah Turner. “We’ll have little meetings here and there to meet this person and that person she wants us to talk to. She knows that every person has one thing that we can take away from, as far as lessons. We meet a lot of different people, and just watching her, she knows everybody.”
Richardson brought her whole team to the Unrivaled announcement event on Oct. 2, when the pro three-on-three league announced it would visit the city on Jan. 30. Unrivaled is the next step to growing women’s basketball in the area.
Richardson hopes a lot comes from Unrivaled, including gaining more women’s basketball fans.
“I hope that the people who talk bad about women’s sports and the WNBA will see that this is true basketball,” Richardson said. “It’s not just some stuff on the corners. It’s not just AAU or church league. This is real professional basketball, and it should be respected as such.”
After Unrivaled, the city will have four years to prepare to welcome its WNBA team. The support that has come from Unrivaled is encouraging, and Richardson believes that with continued marketing, Philly will be more than ready for a pro team.
Temple coach Diane Richardson calls plays against Charlotte on Saturday.
“With the WNBA coming here … we’re going to be exploding,” Richardson said. “To get Unrivaled sold out in a matter of days, that tells you we are ready for the WNBA. I think if we continue to have programs and events like that, it’ll get there, and I think we’ll have sold-out stadiums when the WNBA gets here.”
In her short time in the city, Richardson has been at the forefront of the push to grow women’s basketball here. She hopes others will see the beauty in the sport, too.
“If they are a true sports fan, they will love women’s basketball,” Richardson said. “And it’s not just to say that it’s women’s basketball, but if you love sports, you’ll love women’s basketball, because it’s basketball.”
After consecutive losses, Temple needed to get back in the win column, and it took a road trip to Texas against two teams sitting at the bottom of the American Conference to do so.
Temple battled with Rice last Wednesday, before winning, 69-65. The University of Texas at San Antonio gave the Owls a similar test on Saturday, but Temple prevailed, 70-64.
The Owls (13-7) now are 5-2 in conference play and are tied with Tulsa, South Florida, and Charlotte for second place in the American. Florida Atlantic is currently in first place.
The second half was the opposite. Temple shot 51.9% from the field to take a 12-point lead, but another field-goal drought allowed the Roadrunners chip away at the Owls’ lead.
Temple’s core played cohesively during its scoring burst, though. Guards Derrian Ford, Aiden Tobiason, and Jordan Mason recorded double figures in each game. Guard Gavin Griffiths had 12 points against Rice.
Holding onto the ball
Before their game against Memphis on Jan. 14, the Owls were among the least turnover-prone teams in the country. However, they had 14 against the Tigers and 15 against FAU, a season high.
The Owls addressed their turnover issue and recorded six against Rice and nine against UTSA.
Guard Jordan Mason has been leading the Owls’ offense this season
A big factor was Mason returning to form. He had four turnovers combined in the past two games, after having as many turnovers (10) as points against Memphis and FAU. The San Antonio, Texas, native also scored 18 points against his hometown Roadrunners and added 15 points and six assists vs. Rice.
The bench
Temple’s offense takes a noticeable dip when its bench players hit the floor. The team is averaging 16.7 bench points and had just 19 during their road trip.
Forward Babatunde Durodola and guard Masiah Gilyard have been the best options off the bench, but aren’t the biggest scoring punch, averaging 4.5 and 4.4 points, respectively.
Temple’s Masiah Gilyard is averaging 4.4 points off the bench this season.
With guard AJ Smith out for the remainder of the season because of shoulder surgery, the Owls lack scoring depth on the bench. Guard CJ Hines could have been an option, but he never played a game and was dismissed from the team on Jan. 16 amid a national gambling investigation.
Wins against Charlotte and South Florida would go a long way if Temple wants a chance at securing the American tournament’s No. 2 seed, which grants a bye to the semifinals in the conference’s new format.
Temple’s hopes of beating Charlotte on Saturday seemed lost in the third quarter’s closing seconds. The Owls were trailing by 26 points, and they looked far from the team that had beaten South Florida just four days earlier.
But something changed. A technical foul against Charlotte guard Princess Anderson with 17 seconds left in the third quarter seemed to be the catalyst of the Owls finding some momentum.
Temple coach Diane Richardson found a lineup that worked and stuck with it through the final frame as the Owls mounted a furious comeback. They chipped away at the 49ers’ lead and were within one possession in the final three minutes. Temple took its first, and only, lead with three seconds remaining, when guard Tristen Taylor made two free throws to put her team up, 83-82.
Charlotte’s halfcourt heave at the buzzer fell short, giving Temple (9-10, 3-4 American Conference) a spot in history. The Owls’ 26-point comeback was the largest in program history and tied for third-largest in NCAA women’s basketball history.
“It showed the resilience we had; it showed we weren’t giving up,” Richardson said. “They just rallied together, not looking at the score, and executed. I’m really proud of them.”
The Owls also showed resilience in their previous game against South Florida on Jan. 20, when they overcame a 10-point second-half deficit to snap a three-game skid.
Aside from a much larger deficit vs. Charlotte, Temple looked disengaged on defense and was getting outworked for rebounds. The energy that helped push the Owls past South Florida was nonexistent for 30 minutes on Saturday — until their fourth-quarter lineup took the court.
Richardson played Taylor, guards Kaylah Turner, Savannah Curry, and forward Saniyah Craig for all 10 minutes and forward Felicia Jacobs for nine minutes. Those five ignited spark the Owls’ comeback.
Jacobs and Curry came off the bench and made an impact, which Richardson has been wanting to see in conference play. Jacobs recorded three rebounds and was a team-best plus-23 in her minutes, while Curry made two three-pointers.
“That’s why you saw subs,” Richardson said. “The people on the bench have to fight for minutes and they’ve got to show some kind of impact when they get in there to prove they are worthy of the minutes. They’ve been doing that all week.”
While Jacobs and Curry made an impact, the comeback was powered by Taylor, who had the best game of her career.
Taylor was playing well before the fourth quarter. She had 15 points and three assists through 30 minutes, but she took her game to another level in the final 10 minutes.
Temple’s Tristen Taylor made the game-winning free throw against Charlotte on Saturday.
Taylor poured in 17 points and made all six of her field-goal attempts, three of which were three-pointers. She also assisted on three of the other four made baskets in the quarter. When Temple needed her most, Taylor stepped up in the final minutes.
She scored the Owls’ final 10 points and made the biggest play of the game to set herself up for the go-ahead free throws. Turner missed a jump shot, but Taylor soared in for the offensive rebound and was fouled on her putback attempt. Taylor made both free throws to close out Charlotte and finished with a career-high 32 points on 10-for-13 shooting from the field.
“I think I went 50% from the free-throw line last game,” Taylor said. “I’ve been in the gym shooting free throws a lot this week, and I feel like when I stepped up there, I didn’t have any nerves just from practicing and being confident all week.”
Despite winning, the Owls failed to play a complete game through four quarters, and it nearly cost them against Charlotte. Next up, Temple has a road test on Wednesday night (8 p.m., ESPN+) against first-place Rice (17-3, 9-0).
Richardson knows her team can’t wait until the fourth quarter to play.
“They’re playing really great basketball, but I think we’re playing good basketball right now, too,” Richardson said. “So we’ve got to go in there on their home court, and we’ve got to play Temple basketball from the top to the finish.”
Rollie Massimino “did not mess around” when it came to drawing up defensive schemes against Patrick Ewing … or warding off gambling temptations that might filter through to his Villanova players.
“When we were playing, we had an FBI agent who was a former ’Nova basketball player give talks about gambling,” said Chuck Everson, a member of Massimino’s 1985 Wildcats title team that took down heavily favored Georgetown.
“Rollie did not mess around with that stuff. It wasn’t that far removed from the Boston College [point-shaving] scandal. Rollie brought in the FBI to talk to us. Coach Mass did a great job of teaching us, and it wasn’t all basketball; it was life lessons. And with gambling, it was, ‘Don’t do that.’
“To this day, I have never called DraftKings, or anything like that. I attribute that to being scared straight with Coach Mass.”
Everson, 61, played in an era when sports betting wasn’t legal in most of the country. These days, things are quite different. College athletes are compensated by their schools or through lucrative name, image, and likeness deals, and the legal/illegal gambling culture infiltrates every level of sports.
Last Thursday in Philadelphia, federal authorities announced a sweeping criminal indictment and related filings against 26 people on charges related to manipulating NCAA games and Chinese professional games through bribes, some as high as five figures.
It is the fourth federal criminal indictment that involves gambling and sports unsealed in the last six months, and the latest alleged gambling scheme involves one of the storied Big 5 programs: La Salle.
According to the indictment, at least one of the purported rigged games took place in 2024 in Philadelphia between La Salle and St. Bonaventure.
There are at least 39 players from 17 NCAA Division I schools who are alleged to have been involved in the scheme, but the indictment may underscore other, more troubling concerns.
Players at mid-major or smaller Division I programs might earn a fraction in NIL money compared to what their counterparts at elite programs take in, and therefore might be more susceptible to the temptations of illicit paydays. As one former federal prosecutor put it, this alleged scheme might be one of many dominoes waiting to fall.
“Anything that interferes with the integrity of sporting events, you’re going to get action by prosecutors,” said Edward McDonald, who prosecuted those involved in the Boston College point-shaving case in the late ’70s. McDonald, now senior counsel at the Dechert law firm, thinks that mid-major schools, like La Salle and some others in the Big 5, could be particularly vulnerable to gambling and bribery schemes.
“These smaller schools, the compensation to players is not as great [compared to larger programs], even for the better players on the team,” said McDonald, who learned of the Boston College scam through his investigations of organized crime family members with the Justice Department (and played himself in the Martin Scorsese-directed mob film Goodfellas).
“Players going to big-time schools are making 10 times more. A player [at a smaller program] might not be having a good season or might think they’re not going to play in the NBA or professionally, and they might say, ‘What the hell, I might as well cash in now.’”
Prop bets on a La Salle game
According to the court filings, one of the defendants, Jalen Smith, and former LSU and NBA player Antonio Blakeney (who is “charged elsewhere,” according to the indictment), attempted to recruit players on the La Salle men’s basketball team for the point-shaving scheme.
The fixers offered the La Salle players payments to underperform and influence the first half of a game against St. Bonaventure on Feb. 21, 2024, according to the filings.
Prosecutors allege that before the game at Tom Gola Arena, defendants who acted as fixers placed bets totaling approximately $247,000 on the Bonnies to cover the first-half spread. A $30,000 wager was made in Philadelphia at a FanDuel sportsbook, according to the indictment. But those bets failed after La Salle covered the spread.
“Neither the university, current student-athletes, or staff are subjects of the indictment,” La Salle wrote in a statement. “We will fully cooperate as needed with officials and investigations.”
La Salle coach Fran Dunphy directing the Explorers in November 2023. Dunphy retired after last season.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told The Inquirer that several years ago he received complaints from a number of college coaches in his state about online abuse directed at players and threatening calls from gamblers who had lost big.
“I called up [NCAA president] Charlie Baker, and asked him, ‘What do you think of prop betting?’” DeWine said. “He said, ‘We don’t like it.’ And I said, ‘Give me a letter that says that.’
“Under Ohio law, if I can get a letter from a league saying, ‘Don’t bet on certain things,’ that gives me the ability to go to my Casino Commission and they can [enact rules] without any legislation. Charlie sent the letter, I took that to the commission, and that stopped collegiate prop betting.”
The Ohio Casino Control Commission granted the NCAA’s request to prohibit proposition bets on collegiate sports in February 2024, but the decision affected only Ohio.
“It doesn’t really eliminate the problem,” DeWine said.
The ban in Ohio is only a drop in the bucket against a sea of pro-gambling momentum, legislation, and, most significantly, lucrative revenue streams.
CJ Hines, a guard who was dismissed from Temple’s basketball team on Jan. 16, allegedly participated in a point-shaving scheme during the 2024-25 season while playing for Alabama State, according to the indictment. Hines transferred to Temple in May but didn’t play this season after the university announced that he was under investigation for eligibility concerns before his enrollment.
Former Alabama State guard CJ Hines (3) averaged 14.1 points in 35 starts last season.
The Atlantic 10 Conference — which includes La Salle and St. Joseph’s — weighed in on the latest gambling indictment.
“Any activity that undermines the integrity of competition has no place in college athletics,” commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade said in a release. “The Atlantic 10 and its member institutions will continue to work closely with the proper authorities to combat illegal activities.”
A St. Joe’s spokesperson added: “St. Joseph’s University has not been approached by federal investigators or any other entity about suspicious sports wagering activity involving St. Joe’s student-athletes or team.”
Villanova, which plays in the powerful Big East Conference, has numerous resources and protocols in place to address the sports wagering issue.
Handbooks, which include NCAA rules on gambling, are distributed annually to athletes, who also must sign a sports wagering document before being declared eligible. The athlete must acknowledge he or she won’t engage in activities that influence the outcome or win-loss margins of any game.
In 2021, 2023, and 2025, Villanova brought in speakers who have a history with sports gambling to talk with athletes about the risks and dangers associated with it. Villanova’s athletic compliance office meets twice annually with every athlete to review NCAA compliance standards, including its rules on sports wagering.
Former Villanova basketball star Maddy Siegrist told The Inquirer last year that her college alma mater ingrained in her mind the potential devastating consequences of gambling, values that she continues to adhere to as a WNBA player.
‘The integrity of sports is at risk’
Even after the 2018 Supreme Court ruling that legalized sports wagering state to state, the honesty and integrity component still comes into question when so much is riding on any sports wager.
DeWine, the Ohio governor, is taking a proactive role in trying to address malfeasance in the gaming culture.
“I’m writing letters to all other major [sports] leagues,” DeWine said. “They need to get on this. If they sit back, they’re making a huge mistake. I think the integrity of sports is at risk. I’m continuing to urge these leagues to take care of business, because they’re the ones that are going to get hurt.”
But McDonald said that with the flurry of recent indictments involving sports and gambling, “you have to wonder how pervasive [the illegal gambling problem] really is.”
“This could very well be the tip of the iceberg,” McDonald said.
