The all-time city series between Temple and Villanova is the closest among the Big 5 teams.
But over the last four seasons, you wouldn’t know it. Instead, the game has served as a reminder of how far apart the two programs are.
And unfortunately for the Owls, Wednesday night’s matchup was more of the same.
The Wildcats looked every bit like the nation’s No. 1 team, never trailed and coasted to an 87-67 win at what was listed on the final box score as a sold-out Liacouras Center, although there were empty seats on both levels of the building.
Playing Temple for the third consecutive season as the top-ranked team in the country, Villanova got near-perfect games from guard Jalen Brunson and forward Omari Spellman, who scored 31 and 27 points, respectively. Both point totals were career highs, and both players looked like future pros, making good on the 5-star recruiting profiles they brought with them to the Main Line.
The only player on Temple’s roster who performed like he has an NBA future was Quinton Rose, who scored a career-high 27 points on 9 of 12 shooting and 5 of 6 from 3-point range. And on the defensive end, the 6-foot-8 sophomore forward had a hand in holding Villanova’s Mikal Bridges, another NBA prospect, to just seven points on 3 of 10 shooting.
Otherwise, the Wildcats shot 61.5 in the second half and 60 percent overall (33 of 55), including 13 of 28 from 3-point range. The Owls, who dropped to 6-3 and 1-2 in the Big 5 with the loss, picked things up in the second half with 15 of 27 shooting but simply were not good enough to contend.
Temple forward Obi Enechionyia, who had scored in double figures in six of Temple’s first eight games, struggled again, shooting 1 of 7 from the floor, 0-for-2 from 3-point range and just 1 of 4 from the free-throw line en route to a seven-point night. And Shizz Alston Jr., who had scored 22 and 20, respectively, in wins over Wisconsin and Saint Joseph’s, was held to 10 points on 4 of 12 shooting and missed all four of his attempts from beyond the arc.
Most coaches, including Temple’s Fran Dunphy, talk about how Villanova doesn’t get enough credit for its defense, and the numbers support it. The Owls had a paltry eight assists on 26 field goals, while the Wildcats were the polar opposite and incredibly efficient offensively with 19 assists on 33 field goals. In other words, Temple again resorted to a lot of one-on-one basketball because it couldn’t get into its sets, and Villanova seemed to contest just about anything the Owls aimed at the basket.
Temple was the last Big 5 team to beat Villanova, back on Dec. 5, 2012 at the Pavilion. Since then, including Wednesday night’s rout, the Wildcats have rattled off 22 consecutive Big 5 wins, and their average margin of victory over the Owls in the last five meetings is 19.2 points per game.
Why the dominance and the disparity between Villanova and the rest of the city’s teams? It’s an obvious answer, and Wildcats coach Jay Wright put it succinctly after the game.
“Really, I know this sounds simple, but we have just had a run here of four or five years of very, very good players that have remained in the program,” said Wright, whose team improved to 11-0 and finished off another city series sweep. “You can lose that at any time if one guy leaves early and then you get a couple of young guys. We have had outstanding players over a run, and I hope to God that they keep coming. It really is what it is, really good players. Just look at where they are, and that’s really the answer.
“If you look at any teams that have a good run, you’ve got really good talented players for a period.”
Three of those current Wildcats players – Brunson, Bridges and guard Phil Booth – were recruited heavily by Temple but ultimately chose Villanova, with Brunson, the son of former Temple standout Rick Brunson, being the one that got away.
In three games against the school he almost attended, Brunson has been fantastic, scoring 69 points on 23 of 33 shooting, including 13 of 20 from 3. And in addition to his dead-eye shooting Wednesday night, Brunson dished out a game-high five assists, swiped six rebounds and didn’t turn the ball over.
“It’s very difficult because his efficiency is ridiculous,” Dunphy said of Brunson. “He got 22 of those (points) in the first half, and I don’t think he got his first point of the second half until maybe two minutes to go (actually 3:53) in the game. But he’s that kind of player. He stepped up and made a three late that added to the total. But in the first half, he was just spectacular.”
Save for his four turnovers, the same could otherwise be said of Rose, who’s an immeasurably better shooter than he was when he first arrived at Temple.
After the Owls fell behind by 28-8, Rose, who had already hit from beyond the arc once, scored Temple’s next six points on a pair of 3-pointers to kick-start a 13-0 run that got the Owls within seven at 28-21 with 6 minutes, 45 seconds left before halftime.
“I saw that guys were struggling,” Rose said, “so I had to pick it up offensively.”
At that point, there were finally signs of life. But that was really the only time of the night when Temple seemed to carry the energy, effort and body language of a team that felt like it belonged in that game and that moment.
It wasn’t long before Spellman and Brunson squashed it out with consecutive threes, and then Temple point guard Josh Brown (12 points on 5 of 7 shooting) picked up a technical foul, presumably because he did not get the timeout he called for when he had previously grabbed a loose ball.
Temple never got closer than seven the rest of the way, and the rest of the way wasn’t pretty. Villanova eventually led by as many as 23 points, and that came when Brunson hit a 3-pointer with 3:23 left to go.
And even as the game got to the 2-minute mark and beyond, the Wildcats didn’t let up. Wright kept most of his starters in the game until the final buzzer. Brunson and forward Eric Paschall each threw down dunks, and Brunson scored the Wildcats’ last bucket of the game with 16 seconds left.
Dunphy, meanwhile, had emptied his bench, with the program’s entire 2017 recruiting class – De’Vondre Perry, J.P. Moorman, Nate Pierre-Louis and Justyn Hamilton – and Alani Moore on the floor. Perhaps at some point, that group will help close the gap on a Big 5 rival that’s still reaping the benefits of winning the 2016 national championship.
Until then, Wednesday was just another reminder that Temple still has a long way to go.
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