On Saturday the men’s basketball team hosted the Houston Cougars (15-14, 7-9) in their second American Conference matchup of the season. While the Owls started strong, they went on to lose 89-79.
The Owls (7-21, 2-14) came out full force at the start of the first half leading 7-0 before the Cougars were forced to call a timeout. Senior Dalton Pepper counted for 5 of those first 7 points going on to score a career high 18 points in the first half including four 3-pointers. The Owls domination did not last for long. Excluding one Mark Williams free throw, the team did not score for seven straight minutes giving the Cougars the opportunity to bounce back; and that they did. 
With 13:19 remaining in the first half, Temple was up 17-8. Move forward to the 5:27 and the Cougars have a 31-21 ten point advantage. Junior captain Will Cummings highlighted these mid-game breakdowns after the game. “It was a stretch where they were making easy lay-ups and it really hurts us later in the game. We need to stop letting that happen.” Cummings ended up with 18 points and 8 assists.
Similar to previous games, Temple’s dunk prone defense came out on Saturday night. The Cougars TaShawn Thomas had a team high 24 points including 2 of the teams 4 slams in the second half.
Temple big man Anthony Lee was back in action after missing 2 games due to injury. Lee finished the night with 8 points and 6 rebounds coming off the bench. Dalton Pepper was slowed down during the second half due to cramping. The Cougars shut down Pepper from beyond the arc as he went on to score a mere 6 second half points finishing with 24.
With 1:16 to play in the second half, Cummings see’s his chance and takes a steal in for the lay-up making it 82-77 Houston. The Owls had more opportunities to come back, however an 0-4 run in the last 45 seconds diminished Temple’s chances
The team will be back in action on Tuesday when they host UCF(11-16, 3-13) at 6:30pm.
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