After a questionable foul call on Hysier Miller with less than five minutes remaining, Temple men’s basketball coach Adam Fisher threw his blazer into the crowd while screaming at the officiating crew.
His moment of frustration summed up the entire second half, as Temple fell 75-69 to USF Wednesday night at The Liacouras Center. The Bulls used a 9-0 run from the five-minute mark to just under the three-minute mark to take a 68-63 lead.
USF, which improved to 12-5 overall and 5-1 in the American Athletic Conference under new head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, scored 16 of the final 22 points in the matchup.
Temple, which has now lost five in a row, fell to 8-12 overall and 1-6 in league play despite posting its best three-point shooting effort of the season, knocking down 11 of its 25 shots from beyond the arc.
“I wear my emotions on my sleeve,” Fisher said. “It’s how I always am. It’s how I’m on the court, it's how I’m off the court. To me, I hope our players see it as passion and pride. I’ll always have their back, whatever they are doing. They told us some stuff, we went to the ref, told them some of the things that were chippy. Some of that has got to be stopped earlier in the game, but I’m emotional, probably something I’m going to continue to work on.
“I’m going to fight for my team every second they’re out there.”
Temple guard Matteo Picarelli scored a season-high 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting, six of which were from three-point range. It was his best performance in an Owls uniform since transferring in from UMBC prior to the season.
The Owls, who are an abysmal 349th out of 351 Division I teams in field goal percentage this season, had previously struggled to get Picarelli the looks he got Wednesday night. As Fisher pointed out after Saturday’s loss to Rice, when you shoot as poorly as Temple has, it’s not hard for opposing teams to identify Picarelli as the Owls’ best shooter and close out on him without having to worry about other shooters who haven't been capable of spacing the floor.
Against USF, the Owls found ways to get him open. Whether it was screens, dribble handoffs or shots in transition, Picarelli got the most open looks he has had all season.
“I think my teammates did a great job,” Picarelli said. “They were looking for me. After I hit the first couple, they were really looking for me in transition. It was kind of the flow of the game. Some games, teams will do other stuff on defense that makes it harder to do certain things like off-ball screens and handoffs. This game, it was like this, next game maybe it’s different. My teammates did a great job and I appreciate them helping me and making me better.”
Temple was without Shane Dezonie and Steve Settle III against USF. Dezonie was seen with a boot on his right foot during warmups and Settle was out with an illness. Fisher did not have an update on their status. Fisher also mentioned that forward Taj Thweatt is away from the team at the moment for an undisclosed reason.
Because the Owls were without two of their forwards, Temple was playing small with five guards on the floor at times throughout the game.
“I think it’s just something that happens,” Fisher said. “We’re not the tallest team in the country, so we know that we got to fight for everything.”
A theme for Temple’s last two losses has been its struggles to start games off well. After granting Rice its first American Athletic Conference win Saturday, the Owls needed to find a way to start off strong against a USF team that entered the night tied for third in the AAC.
The Owls did just that, breaking out to a nine-point lead through the first four minutes of play, but they couldn’t keep it. After holding the Bulls to below 35% from the field and three-point range in the first half, the Bulls shot 65% from the field and 60% from three-point range in the second.
“I thought we guarded and defended well in the first half,” Fisher said. “Guys came out, we really competed. We put emphasis on trying to get out to a good start. Give them credit, down the line they made some big plays, made a couple tough shots, and got some offensive rebounds. It’s a good team.”
USF guard Jayden Reid scored seven of the Bulls nine points in the aforementioned 9-0 run, four of which were from the free throw line. Bulls forward Kasean Pryor led the team with 20 points, going 4-of-5 from three-point range, including the dagger three that put USF up 73-69 with 25 seconds left.
Following what was his best performance of the season against Rice, Hysier Miller scored 16 points on an inefficient 6-of-17 shooting, but he also forced three steals on defense. Temple guard Jahlil White got his first start since Temple’s matchup against Old Dominion in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. He scored 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting, adding five rebounds and six assists. White also got a double technical with USF’s Selton Miguel with four minutes remaining.
Watch Temple's postgame press conference with Adam Fisher and Matteo Picarelli here.
