With point guard Lynn Greer III making his Temple debut and assistant coach Chris Clark back on the bench, the Owls cruised to a 60-42 win at Hofstra Sunday afternoon.
Temple (6-4) played its first nine games without Greer and Clark, both of whom were suspended due to unrelated NCAA rules violations. Greer, a St. Joe’s transfer and the son of former Temple star and current Owls chief of staff Lynn Greer, collected nine points, five rebounds, an assist and a steal in 17 minutes off the bench. He scored Temple’s last five points of the game on a three-point play and a turnaround jumper.
Hofstra (8-4) played Sunday without two starters - point guard and leading scorer and distributor Cruz Davis and fourth-leading scorer Jaquan Sanders – and struggled mightily all day offensively, shooting just 25% (14 of 56) overall and 17.2% (5 of 29) from three-point range.
Temple, which came into Sunday’s game tied for 191st in the country in rebounds per game and 292nd in rebounding margin, outrebounded Hofstra by 54-39 and swiped 16 offensive rebounds that led to 12 second-chance points. The Owls’ 54 rebounds were the program’s highest regular-season total in 16 seasons.
Additionally, Hofstra's 42 points were the fewest by a Temple opponent in four seasons.
Jamal Mashburn Jr. led Temple in scoring with 12 points on an afternoon when the Owls also shot poorly, going 31.3% from the floor (20 of 64) and 25% (4 of 16) from three. It was just the second sub-20-point scoring game of the season for Mashburn, who shot 4 of 14 from the floor and 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.
Point guard Quante Berry, Temple’s only other double-figure scorer, played a solid 21 minutes off the bench, scoring 10 points on 4 of 6 shooting, including 2-for-3 from three, to go with five rebounds. Starters Zion Stanford, Steve Settle and Babatunde Durodola scored seven points apiece and combined to shoot 6 of 27 from the field. Freshman guard Aiden Tobiason logged his second consecutive start and scored his only three points of the game on a three-point play in the second half.
After falling behind early by 6-0 inside the game’s first 64 seconds, Temple used a 15-2 run, capped by an Elijah Gray three-pointer, to take control of a game they never trailed again. The Owls closed out the first half with what was then their largest lead of the afternoon on a turnaround jumper by Mashburn that gave Temple a 33-20 lead at halftime. The three-point play from Tobiason, which came at the 8:58 mark of the second half, gave the Owls their largest lead of the afternoon at 50-30.
Hofstra guard Jean Aranguren scored a game-high 16 points but shot just 4 of 15 from the floor and 1 of 6 from three in the process. He also grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds and was one of four Hofstra players to block three shots.
Temple guard Shane Dezonie, who has been nursing a wrist injury, went scoreless in six minutes of action and missed a pair of first-half free throws. Guard Jameel Brown, who remains out of the lineup due to personal reasons, was with the Owls on the bench Sunday but was not in uniform.
Temple will move on to its second test in an important, three-game stretch before Christmas when it hosts an 8-2 Davidson team Wednesday at the Liacouars Center.
Front page photo courtesy of Temple Athletics.