Third time is the charm…for UConn. After getting swept by The Owls in the regular season, they were not taking another loss to Temple; Shonn Miller explains “…we just had a lot of energy, and got that win.” Although Temple started the game with a 12-4 run, UConn answered quickly with a 14-2 run, and never stopped running. Clearly coming off of a quadruple overtime win did not slow the Huskies down one bit.
Daniel Hamilton shut it down for the Huskies. The sophomore point guard led the Huskies on the score board, and picked up another double-double. Hamilton had 19 points and 11 rebounds, followed by Shonn Miller who was problematic for the Owls the past two times they faced off. After a lot of speculation on whether or not UConn would be tired after the quadruple overtime or not, Daniel Hamilton explains, “…it was a total confidence booster.”
Temple has been down multiple times this season, including the last time they played UConn. The Owls were down by 12 with less than six minutes remaining and ended up winning. Miller reminisces on that game and recognizes that, “…we had that game down at their place, and then we kind of had a mental lapse and let it go. We did not want that to happen again.” It certainly did not.
In addition to am impressive effort by UConn, Temple simply did not show up. While UConn could not miss a shot, they were over 50% from the field and 50% from the three…the Owls shot 35.9% from the field, and only 20% from the three. Temple led the league in three pointers throughout the season, and average just under eight threes a game; they went 4-20 from behind the arc. Although Quenton DeCosey had 14 points and 6 rebounds, his presence was irrelevant. Hamilton and Rodney Purvis took him out of Temple’s offensive momentum, or lack there of. DeCosey shot 4-17 from the field, 0-5 from the three, and 6-10 from the foul line. Considering that DeCosey has been the leader for the Owl’s offense, this is not the kind of game that he needed when trying to advance the Owls further into the post-season. Another Owl that needed to have a big and did not was Obi Enechionyia. The sophomore has been a huge asset to Temple’s offense throughout the season…when he’s hot. Obi is notoriously streaky when it comes to being on/off, his 13-game “on” stretch did not carry over into their matchup against UConn.
Jaylen Bond is on a little run of his own. The power forward has had a solid four games in a row, including a double-double in three out of the last four. In the first round of the tournament against USF, Bond dropped 17 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. His stats against UConn are strikingly similar. Bond led the Owls with 17 points/10 rebounds, marking his thirteenth double-double of the season. Throughout the season Bond was selected as the sole captain for the Owls, and has shown great leadership. However, his emotion got the best of him in this semi-final matchup as he got called for a technical foul for unsportsmanlike conduct, “…at that point in time, I just lost my focus. Something I can’t do for my teammates. I let them down at that time.”- Bond admits.
Even with UConn’s superior shooting percentage from the field, the biggest factor going against the Owls was missed free throws. Missed free throws seems to be a pattern for Temple. They shot 54.5% from the line, going 12-22. Temple trailed between 6-11 points for the majority of the second half until the final moments of the game, and if they go at least 70% the momentum of the game shifts entirely. When asked “what is going on with the foul shots” Fran Dunphy can only respond with, “I wish I had an answer to that.”
Despite the final score, the Owls were nothing but tenacious. Dan Dingle’s resilience after getting a hit that dropped him to floor, describes their perseverance. Dingle took an elbow to the mouth that dropped him from midair straight to the floor, and gave him a fairly bloody mouthful. After being escorted off during the referee timeout, Dingle did not accept the sub and went to the line to shoot his foul shots, “…he wanted to be in that game and I thought he gave every ounce of energy he could,” Dunphy noted. Not only was the team resilient, but so were the fans. UConn has an unbelievable fan base that travels well, so when playing at neutral sites it almost as if they are playing at home. But Temple’s Diamond Band was not going to be hushed easily. When the band began to go silent, one of the members exclaimed, “Come on guys, we are all they have here, we have to keep going!” “Temple Tuffness” goes far beyond the court.
Temple is now eliminated from the AAC tournament after the 77-62 loss to UConn. Temple has had an impressive season by winning the regular season conference title when they were predicted to finish sixth overall as well as upsetting 3 top 25 teams. But the question is, is it impressive enough to impress the selection committee? “We hope so, but it’s not in our hands. We just pray tomorrow on Selection Sunday that we hear our names called,” Josh Brown said. Temple will have to wait and see for what their fait entails on March 13th. The Owls current record sits at 21-11 and 16-5 in conference play.
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