Temple’s three-game win streak came to an end in a 76-67 loss at North Texas Wednesday night.

With a chance to move back into a tie for first place in the American Athletic Conference standings, the Owls shot poorly against the nation’s fourth-best defensive team. Leading scorer Jamal Mashburn Jr. scored 16 points but shot 5 of 23 from the floor on a night when Temple (12-7 overall, 4-2 American Athletic Conference) converted just 35.4% of its field goals, including 28.6% (8 of 28) in the first half.

Point guard Quante Berry scored a game- and career-high 24 points while Zion Stanford chipped in 17 off the bench as the two backcourt mates shot a combined 15-for-28 from the floor. The rest of the team, however, shot just 8 of 37.

Temple initially jumped out to its largest lead of the game at 18-10 at the 11:47 mark of the first half on a layup by Stanford, but UNT (14-4, 5-1) closed out the first half on a 17-8 run to grab a 27-26 lead at halftime.

The Owls took a short-lived 30-29 lead at the 18:34 mark of the second half on two free throws by Berry, but the Mean Green took control of the game from there with a 14-2 run behind five points from guard Atin Wright and a three-point play from Jasper Floyd that got UNT started.

Wright, UNT’s leading scorer, managed just nine points on 2 of 9 shooting from the floor, but junior forward Brenen Lorient paced the Mean Green with 20 points, 12 of which came in the second half.

Both teams took care of the ball and committed just seven turnovers apiece. UNT came out with the slight rebounding advantage at 38-35, outscored Temple in the paint by 42-28, and shot 49% as a team (25 of 51) on the evening.

UNT enjoyed its largest lead of the game, an 11-point cushion at 45-34, on two free throws by Floyd with 13:07 left to play. Temple got within four points on five separate occasions the rest of the way and trailed by 60-56 with 3:37 to go following a Stanford three-pointer but never got any closer.

Temple played its second-straight game without reserve forward Elijah Gray, who left last Thursday’s win over Memphis after just eight minutes of action while holding his left hamstring. Freshman guard Aiden Tobiason, who left Sunday’s win over Tulane and returned to the bench with ice on his left shoulder, came off the bench Wednesday night while Matteo Picarelli started in his place and hit the only shot he took, a first-half three-pointer.

Temple will close out its two-game Texas road swing when it plays at UTSA Saturday. ESPN+ will stream the game at 4 p.m.

Front page photo courtesy of Robin Hsiao, Temple Athletics.