(Puerto Rico) The Owls exploded in the first half of the first half. At one point, they held a 12 point lead over #22 Butler in the semifinals of the Puerto Rico tip off on Friday afternoon. But that hot start, cooled down quickly. Temple ultimately lost 74-69 and dropped to 1-2 on the season.
Temple had trouble on defense on Friday, particularly in rebounding. Although both seniors Jaylen Bond and Quenton DeCosey had double-doubles; Bond with 13 points and 13 rebounds and Quenton DeCosey with 24 points and 10 rebounds, the Owls gave up 19 offensive rebounds throughout the game. Butler was really able to capitalize on their second chance shot opportunities. Butler also won the battle at the stripe. While Temple shot was 88% from the line, they only had a total of nine free throws. Butler shot twenty-five free throws.
Butler held onto the lead for the entire second half, and at times increased the gap up to 10 points. In the middle stretch of the second, both teams found themselves in a lull, with neither team really putting up any points. In the final moments of the game just when Butler was putting the game away, Temple made two runs to cut the lead to 5 with under four minutes left to play. After Butler nailed two free throws in the final 3 seconds of the game, DeCosey stuck a buzzer beater 3 to cut the lead to 5 for good.
Unlike UNC, the freshmen had little impact in this game. All but 8 points came from upperclassmen. In addition to Bond and Decosey both contributing double-doubles, Josh Brown and Devin Coleman added a combined 22 points for the Owls.
Temple will still play in the consolation game on Sunday against either Miami or #16 Utah. The third place game will be at 4:30 PM.
Be the first to comment