Owls win fourth straight, topple UCF in OT, 77-70
Temple has officially started to turn around its season, and the Owls are earning every ounce of it along the way.
After knocking off No. 1 Houston on the road last weekend and scratching out a three-point home win in overtime Wednesday over USF, the Owls again went to overtime Saturday, this time outlasting UCF in Orlando, 77-70.
Khalif Battle, in arguably his best performance of the season, scored a game-high 26 points, including nine in overtime, and also swiped a team-high seven rebounds and went a perfect 9-for-9 from the free-throw line. Center Jamille Reynolds, in his second game back after returning from a broken right thumb that sidelined him since mid-December, added 16 points on 7 of 9 shooting against his former team, contributing five of his points in the extra period.
With its fourth win in a row, Temple is now 14-9 overall, 8-2 in the American Athletic Conference at second place in the league standings, and 3-0 in Quad One games. The Owls have also started the season with a 5-0 road conference record for the first time since the 1987-88 team did it en route to gaining a No. 1 ranking, a 32-2 record and an Elite Eight appearance.
The Owls are still far removed from playing at an Elite Eight level, but they’re also playing a much better brand of basketball than the team that lost to Wagner in the season opener and slogged through disappointing December losses to Penn, Ole Miss and Maryland Eastern Shore that put a serious dent in their chances of earning an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.
They’re also showing quite a bit of resiliency, and that was evident once more Saturday.
With Battle, Damian Dunn and Reynolds all coming off the bench once again, Temple fell behind by 10 before rattling off a 19-4 run to close out the last 6 minutes, 54 seconds of the first half. The Owls then built a nine-point second half lead but eventually blew a four-point advantage in the last 48.9 seconds of regulation in improbable fashion.
After a pair of Battle free throws put Temple ahead by 72-68 at that juncture of the game, UCF sophomore guard Darius Johnson cut the Owls’ lead to two with 39.1 seconds to go after getting fouled by Hysier Miller. Then Dunn turned the ball over later on the ensuing possession, and Johnson found himself back at the foul line with 2.4 seconds left after drawing a foul on Battle.
Johnson, a 91% free throw shooter who had missed just three times from the line all season, missed his first foul shot, prompting UCF coach Johnny Dawkins to call a timeout. When play resumed, Johnson flicked a high-arching free-throw attempt off the back of the rim, and Temple guard Jahlil White initially came down with the rebound before getting tied up by Johnson.
The call should have been a jump ball, but White was instead whistled for a foul on Johnson with one second to go.
Johnson knocked down both free throws this time to force overtime.
Then 21 seconds into the extra period, Johnson somehow banked in a corner three-pointer to give UCF a 65-62 lead and what looked like some momentum. But Reynolds grabbed an offensive rebound off a Battle miss on the next trip down the floor, scored and completed the three-point play 15 seconds later to tie the game.
Reynolds responded by blocking UCF forward Lahat Thioune’s shot on the next possession before White took the ball from Thioune off the miss and got it to Battle for a transition dunk that gave way to a 67-65 lead with 3:11 left in overtime.
Temple never trailed again, building a seven-point lead on a three from Battle and a dunk from Reynolds off a Dunn assist. Thioune eventually cut Temple’s lead to two at 72-70 with 20 seconds left, but four free throws from Battle and another from Nick Jourdain iced the game.
The numbers
Battle’s 26 points were one off his season high of 27 in Temple’s win over VCU back on Dec. 3. After struggling through a 1-for-9 shooting performance in the Owls’ win at Houston last Sunday, Battle has scored 51 points on 50% shooting from the floor (16 of 32) and 13 of 14 from the free-throw line.
Miller scored eight of his 13 points in the first half and shot 5 of 10 overall and 2-for-5 from three-point range. Dunn was quiet offensively with just eight points on 3 of 8 shooting in 37 minutes. White had five points but contributed six rebounds, four assists, a block, a steal and just one turnover on a day when Temple turned it over 17 times.
The Owls, who are now 2-2 in overtime games this season, once again succeeded in locking down the opposing team’s leading scorer, this time holding talented freshman forward Taylor Hendricks to just six points and seven shots, although he did grab a game-high 11 rebounds. Hendricks was ranked by Rivals as a four-star recruit and the No. 65 overall player in the 2022 class. Thioune and guard Ithiel Horton had 13 points apiece for the Knights, while Johnson had 12 after going scoreless and getting just one shot in the first half.
Up next
Temple now gets a full week off to prepare for Houston, which fell to No. 3 in the latest AP Top 25 poll after losing to the Owls last Sunday. The 20-2 Cougars held off Cincinnati, 75-69, at home Saturday behind the strength of a 26-9 run to close out the game. Houston will play at Wichita State Thursday night before traveling to Philadelphia to play Temple at the Liacouras Center Sunday