Shorthanded Owls grab big road win at UCF
Playing on the road Wednesday night against a UCF team that routed the Owls 10 days before Christmas and without their head coach Aaron McKie, who didn’t make the trip because he’s on the program’s COVID protocol list, Temple responded with a come-from-behind 66-62 win over the Knights in Orlando.
The Owls, who put forth one of their worst performances of the season in a 17-point home loss to UCF back on Dec. 15, were a much tougher and grittier team Wednesday night in improving to 8-6 overall and grabbing their first American Athletic Conference win. Temple got a team- and career-high 17 points from freshman guard Jahlil White and 16 points and the game-winning three-pointer with seven seconds left from redshirt freshman Damian Dunn.
Temple, which trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half, used a 12-0 run to take a 52-48 lead on UCF, a team that beat Michigan by 14 six days ago. Brandon Mahan, who had previously been held scoreless largely due to the defensive efforts of White, hit two threes to lead an 8-0 Knights run that put them back ahead at 62-58.
A Zach Hicks three, off a feed from point guard Jeremiah Williams, closed the gap to 62-61 with 23 seconds to go. Nine seconds later, second-year freshman forward Nick Jourdain set up Dunn’s game-winner by locking up UCF’s Tyem Freeman for a jump ball instead of committing a foul. The possession arrow favored the Owls with 14 seconds left, and Dunn hit his game-winner from beyond the arc seven seconds later.
“We weren’t trying to foul right away,” said assistant coach Monte’ Ross, who took on the head-coaching duties with McKie back home in Philadelphia. “We wanted to get a trap and we got a good trap. Mahan was able to step through the trap and he kicked it ahead to Walker, and Nick just had a great basketball IQ where instead of fouling him right away, he went and tried to get the jump ball, knowing that if it wasn’t going to be a jump ball call, it was going to be a foul call, which was fine with us. But that was a great basketball IQ on his part to go for the jump ball first before attempting to foul.”
White, a 6-foot-8 freshman who missed all of last season while recovering from a meniscus tear in his left knee, the same one he injured at New Jersey’s Wildwood Catholic High School, started and shot 7 of 9 from the floor in a career-high 36 minutes. He also tallied five rebounds and one assist, block and steal apiece.
“Just being aggressive and having confidence,” White said when asked what was working for him on a career-best night. “My teammates and coaches always stress to me, ‘Have confidence. You’re a good player.’ So I was just confident out there, doing what I could do to help win.”
In locking down Mahan, with the exception of his two late threes, White shut down a player who got 18 against the Owls last month, 26 against Michigan and 17 on SMU three days ago.
Williams’ performance was also critical in Temple’s come-from-behind win. The second-year freshman contributed 13 points, six assists and four rebounds in 39 minutes.
“Jeremiah’s everything on the court,” White said. “He guides me through the whole game, always knows what to say. Just a great leader, great point guard.”
“He really doesn’t get the credit he deserves for exactly how much we do lean on him,” Ross said. “But in every huddle, offensively and defensively, he's telling everybody, once we call a play, he knows exactly where everybody belongs. And he's telling them and he's getting them situated. And you know, he's a rock for us that you need your point guard to be. And I thought he was fabulous tonight.
“The other thing about J-Will is, he guards the other team's best player for the entire game. And I thought the job that he did on (Darin) Green today (held to seven points, half of his season average) was just magnificent.”
Dunn said film study was important in helping Temple look like a much different team than the one that got handled by UCF in its conference opener last month.
“We studied together, we talked about it together privately together as a team with the staff,” said Dunn, who shot 5 of 11 overall, 2 of 4 from three-point range and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. “And I think that they helped us kind of see advantages and kind of some disadvantages and things that we didn't do so well the first time around. We did do a great job defensively. We're holding guys to a standard, and we just gotta keep carrying the energy like I said, and I think we'll be fine.”
Ross said he wasn’t sure if McKie would be back on the sideline Saturday when Temple hosts ECU.
Putbacks: In addition to McKie, the Owls were without starting forward Jake Forrester (non COVID-related illness) and backup point guard Tai Strickland (back) for the second consecutive game. … Hicks scored 10 points off the bench with the help of three three-pointers. The second of those threes turned into a four-point play when he was fouled by Isaiah Adams with 6:20 to go in the second half and knocked down the ensuing free throw.