After scoring the last seven points of regulation to force overtime, Temple had no answers for Cincinnati guard Landers Nolley II and lost to the Bearcats 88-83 in overtime Wednesday night at a sold-out Fifth Third Arena.
Damian Dunn, who scored a game-high 34 points and the 1,000th of his career along the way, contributed four of the Owls’ seven points in their 7-0 run to force the extra period, with forward Zach Hicks’ three-pointer tying the game with 20 seconds to go to force overtime.
From there, Nolley took over, draining Cincinnati’s first three buckets of overtime and scoring nine in the last five minutes. The Bearcats improved to 18-10 overall and 9-6 in the American Athletic Conference, while the Owls dropped to 15-14 overall and 9-7 in league play. Nolley and fellow guard David DeJulius each had a team-high 20 points,
Temple played its second straight game without its leading scorer in Khalif Battle, who did not make the trip and is still not with the team due to personal reasons, head coach Aaron McKie said after the game.
The Owls once again started a lineup of Dunn, point guard Hysier Miller, and forwards Nick Jourdain, Kur Jongkuch and Hicks. Miller had 13 points on 5 of 11 shooting, including 3-for-3 from three-point range, to go with seven rebounds and six assists. Center Jamille Reynolds had 11 points off the bench after going scoreless in the first half, and Hicks had 11 as well.
Jahlil White had eight points off the bench and was perfect on all three shots from the field and both from the line, but he played just 14 minutes and did not return after sustaining what looked like a right ankle injury in the second half.
The Owls assisted on 15 of their 28 field goals and turned the ball over just eight times, but the Bearcats won the rebounding battle, 35-29, and shot 28 of 30 from the free-throw line. Cincinnati also benefitted from 27 bench points, with a career-high 15 of them coming from South Jersey native and former Roman Catholic High School standout Dan Skillings, who had gone scoreless in 23 minutes during Cincinnati’s last two games.
Dunn tied the game twice for Temple in overtime, but Nolley’s stepback jumper with 2:16 left in overtime put Cincinnati ahead for good at 81-79. Dunn tried drawing contact from Nolley on the next trip down the floor, didn’t get the call and missed a three. Mika Adams-Woods later hit a pair of free throws to give the Bearcats an 83-79 lead with 1:46 to go.
After Reynolds cut it to two on an alley-oop dunk, Nolley again had an answer, dropping in another stepback jumper to push Cincinnati’s lead back out to four with a minute left. Dunn made it a two-point game with 34 seconds remaining, Nolley then hit 1 of 2 from the line on the next trip down the floor, and then Miller tried driving the lane and missed instead of taking or setting up a teammate for a three-pointer to try to tie the game.
Cincinnati’s Ody Oguama fouled Reynolds after Miller’s drive, but Reynolds missed both free throws, and Jeremiah Davenport iced the game two seconds later with a pair of foul shots.
Temple now has a full week off before it hosts UCF next Thursday night at 7 p.m. in its final home game of the season.
