Temple breezes past Charlotte and will face Rice in the AAC semifinals

FORT WORTH, Texas — Familiarity meant many things for Temple on Monday.

For most of the Owls, it meant a return to Dickies Arena for another American Athletic Conference women’s basketball tournament. For all of them, it was a third matchup with Charlotte.

This time of year, there are few secrets between conference foes, and Temple used that familiarity to its advantage in a 65-34 win, its seventh in a row. It also was the third time Temple had beaten Charlotte this season. The Owls (20-10) jumped out to an 11-0 lead and led by as many as 14 points in the first quarter, despite a couple of scoring droughts. Amaya Oliver dominated the glass with 13 rebounds, including five in the first quarter alone, and was Temple’s leading scorer with 12 points, while Tarriyonna Gary (11 points) and Jaleesa Molina (10 points) also finished in double figures. The trio helped the Owls dominate, 36-6, in the paint and outrebound Charlotte, 56-36. Overall, Temple held Charlotte to just 21% shooting from the floor.

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Temple is Oliver’s third program. She made 11 starts as a freshman at Southern Cal, was Pac-12 all-freshman honorable mention, and, after another season at USC, parlayed that into a solid tenure at Loyola Marymount. She started all 30 of the Lions’ games last season and has started 25 of the 27 games she played in the 2024-25 season.

That kind of experience can make it easier to weather dry spells, like Monday’s second quarter. The teams shot a combined 7-of-32 in the period — Temple turned the ball over six times and was held scoreless for the final 3 minutes, 38 seconds of the period — but the Owls still led by 11 at halftime. Charlotte’s Alexis Andrews scored five of her team-high 13 points in the second quarter, but Temple held the 49ers (11-21) to just 15.8% shooting from the floor in the period. The Owls also held Niners leading scorer Hayleigh Breland scoreless, while second-leading scorer Keanna Rembert had just six points.

“Before the game, I just spoke to my teammates, and I was just like, ‘We know we’re the best team in this conference, but we have to prove that every time we step on the court,’” Gary said. “So in order to do that, we just had to come out, play hard defense, get Charlotte riled up, and we knew it was going to translate to the offensive end, and I feel like that’s where we were able to make our money and just be present in the game.”

Oliver provided an early spark and helped keep Temple steady throughout the first half, but possibly her biggest bucket came at the 6:25 mark of the third quarter. She’d been active all period — she drew an offensive foul and notched a steal less than three minutes in — but her fourth-chance tip-in (she twice grabbed her own rebound) helped spark an 18-2 run in which Charlotte was held without a field goal for over six minutes. She was subbed out seconds after her bucket and watched from the bench as her team’s lead grew to as many as 27 points in the third quarter as Temple outscored Charlotte, 25-9.

Oliver checked back in to start the fourth quarter, but rested alongside several fellow veterans as younger teammates closed out the rout. Even with program stalwarts like Gary and Tiarra East (nine points) resting, the Owls maintained the tough defense emblematic of Temple coach Diane Richardson’s teams.

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That tough defense will be put to the test Tuesday night. Rice, which is coming off an upset of top-seeded Texas-San Antonio, is the top rebounding team in the conference and knocked off Philly’s Owls in last season’s AAC semifinals en route to an AAC tournament title. Temple won the teams’ previous matchup by 20 on Feb. 28 as part of its current winning streak and will look to keep that streak — and its NCAA Tournament hopes — alive in the rematch (7 p.m., ESPN+).

“Rice is a really good team, and they did this last year, so they’re playing really, really hard,” Richardson said of the ninth-seeded Owls (16-16). “We’ve got to be able to come out and follow our [scouting report] as well. We want to get to the championship, and we want to win the championship.”