Temple grabbed the 2,000th win of the program’s history Wednesday night at the Liacouras Center, and the Owls did it in style against a very solid opponent for good measure.

After his team trailed for more than 31 minutes, some smart defensive adjustments from head coach Adam Fisher allowed Temple to pressure and trap its way back into the ballgame and erase what was once an 11-point second-half deficit.

And after Davidson’s Bobby Durkin dropped in a high-arching three-pointer to put the Wildcats ahead by a point with 10 seconds left, Fisher called a timeout and drew up a play for leading scorer Jamal Mashburn Jr.

With Mashburn Jr. being guarded heavily, the ball instead found big man Elijah Gray with history on the line. Gray delivered, spinning past Davidson’s Reed Bailey for what proved to be the game-winning layup with four seconds to go.

Once Temple waited out a Davidson timeout and a Connor Kochera miss at the buzzer, the Owls were finally able to exhale, emptying the bench in celebration to rejoice in their milestone, 62-61 win.

“The play was for [Jamal Mashburn Jr.] and they took that away because he’s a prolific scorer,” guard Shane Dezonie, who inbounded the ball on Temple’s last possession, said. “Me and Elijah made eye contact before the play and knew that if it blew up, we had another option with Elijah in the post, and he’s a great player who made a great play.”

Gray, a 6-foot-8, 235-pound Fordham transfer, picked up two early fouls inside the game’s first eight minutes but recovered to play his best all-around game in a Temple uniform, posting 13 points on 5 of 7 shooting in 18 minutes off the bench. Dezonie saved his best basketball for the game’s final minute when his weak side block of Bailey and ensuing fastbreak dunk off a feed from Quante Berry gave the Owls a 60-58 lead with 35 seconds left.

Temple had some defensive success early, forcing the Wildcats to take shots late in the shot clock, which often ended in misses. Despite the success on the defensive end, the Owls offense failed to get much of anything going.

Davidson’s offense started to pick up, scoring nine unanswered first-half points as the Wildcats were able to pick apart the Owls’ defense with creative off-ball movement, leading to good looks that started falling.

“This is a high-octane offense,” said Fisher. “You want to talk about something that keeps you up at night, watch these guys play offense. The cutting, the passing, the movement, it's hard to watch and prepare for.”

Temple’s shooting struggles continued the remainder of the first half under Davidson’s pressure, forced by a 1-3-1 zone defense that led to difficult shots for the Owls. Temple shot just 8 of 24 from the field with Mashburn Jr. being the shining light in the first half with 11 points.

Temple’s third-leading scorer Zion Stanford, who typically would be the Owls’ best player against the zone, missed the game after tweaking his ankle in practice. Foul trouble was an issue for the Owls early, with Gray and fellow forward Babtunde Duradola picking up two apiece.

Bailey, Davidson’s 6-10 forward and leading scorer, took advantage, scoring 13 of his 26 points in the first half as the Wildcats led 31-24. Bailey played a big role in Davidson outrebounded Temple 21-17 in the first half as the Wildcats looked in control.

“We got to defend and rebound,” Fisher said. “I asked our guys at the end of shoot around if they knew what a one-hit wonder was. … So our challenge tonight was ‘are you a one-hit wonder defensively like you did at Hofstra, or is that going to be our identity and our staple?’”

The second half saw big adjustments from Fisher, as the Owls’ offense was simplified. The focus became breaking down the Davidson zone and focusing on scoring in the paint instead of using the three ball to get back into the game, something they struggled with in going 3-19 from beyond the arc.

On the defensive end, Temple’s intensity continued to pressure and force misses, holding Davidson to 36% shooting in the second half. The combination of both sides saw the Owls mount a comeback, snapping Davidson’s three-game winning streak.

“[Beating the zone] is something that we worked on, but the hardest part to replicate is their size,” said Fisher. “Their guards are big and long and it's hard to simulate in practice. But I thought we did a nice job. We had a plan of attack each timeout to run two plays, and I thought they really executed.”

With the win, Temple joins Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke and UCLA as the NCAA programs who have reached 2,000 wins.

“Two thousand wins is incredible,” Fisher said. “It’s a program win to be the sixth school to ever do it and it's why you want to come to Temple. So thank you to all our former student-athletes, coaches, trainers who have played a big part in this.”

The Owls will now travel to Springfield, Massachusetts to play Rhode Island on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in the Hall of Fame Classic. The game will be televised on the CBS Sports Network.