Houston picked up right where Temple left off against Cincinnati. The Cougars scored 54.4% from the field and 46.7% from behind the arc. Meanwhile the Owls were 34.5% in the field and only 13% from the the three, after going 0-12 in the first half from behind the arc. Overall Temple went 3-23 from the three. Not only were the Owls heavily outscored, they were outrebounded again. Houston grabbed 41 rebounds, while Temple only managed 30. Jaylen Bond and Quenton DeCosey both picked up six rebounds for the Owls.
Jaylen Bond also had a career high of 4 steals, but only contributed 6 points offensively. DeCosey and Obi Enechionyia led the team with 9 points a piece. This is only the second game that Quenton DeCosey did not reach double figures, and the first time all season that no player scored in the double digits for the Owls.
The Owls were down for the count for good towards the end of the first half. At the midway point of the first half is when Houston went on their 20-3 run that stretched until just around the 2-minute mark. Once the Cougars went on their run, the Owls could not recover. Houston’s lead increased all the way to 30 minutes, almost tying the Owls’ largest defeat margin in the Liacouras center of 32. In addition to almost tying the largest defeat margin, this is only the third loss under Dunphy that exceeded 20 points at the Liacouras center in his 10 seasons at Temple thus far.
Temple did however outscore Houston from the foul line. The Owls’ were 7-9 giving them a 77.8% from the free throw line, while Cougars went only 7-15. So all in all Temple was not totally defeated at the end of the day.
The Owls are now 1-1 in the American Athletic Conference, and 6-6 overall. The action continues Tuesday January 5th at 8 o’clock against the UConn Huskies.
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