With a chance to stay undefeated in American Athletic Conference play, Temple instead fumbled away a regrettable 80-79 loss at East Carolina Wednesday night in Greenville.
The Owls (9-6, 1-1) took a 79-76 lead with 48 seconds left after two free throws by Jamal Mashburn Jr. but instead handed the game over to the Pirates (9-7, 1-2) with an opportunity to put the game away.
Following Masbhurn’s free throws, Quante Berry came up with a stop at the other end with 30 seconds left, forcing a jump ball as Cam Hayes drove toward the basket with the possession arrow pointing Temple’s way. But Shane Dezonie turned the ball over to ECU guard RJ Felton on the inbound pass, and Felton’s layup two seconds later sliced Temple’s lead to 79-78.
Three seconds after a timeout from ECU head coach Michael Schwartz, the Owls had a chance to push their lead back out to three. Instead, Zion Stanford missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and Pirates forward Jayshayne Woodard scored what proved to be the game-winning bucket with 10 seconds left.
On the ensuing possession, Stanford drove through the lane and missed at the rim, and the officiating crew initially gave Temple possession with 1.1 seconds left after the ball went out of bounds. But a replay review showed the ball went off Berry’s foot, and the Owls will now head to Houston to play Rice on Saturday with a missed opportunity in their rearview mirror.
Temple ultimately never should have been in a spot to get swallowed up by the late-game dramatics.
The Owls, who took a 41-32 halftime lead with the help of a 14-0 first-half run, coughed up a 10-point second-half lead with their own mistakes and poor play. ECU outrebounded the Owls by 41-31 on the night and by 11-5 on the offensive glass in the second half alone. The Pirates also scored 10 points off eight Temple turnovers in the second half, three of which came from Mashburn, who led the Owls with 22 points on 8 of 17 shooting.
ECU used a 19-9 run to erase the 50-40 Temple lead the Owls once held at the 15:52 mark after a Mashburn layup. Woodard, who scored 15 points for the Pirates, tied the game at 59 with 9:01 left on a pair of free throws. Later in the half, Temple pulled ahead by 71-69 on a Berry layup with 5:04 to go and led until Woodard’s game-winning layup with 10 seconds left. For almost five minutes down the stretch, the Owls were never able to push their lead past four points as they went without a field goal for the last 2:56 of the game.
Temple shot 56% (9 of 16) from three-point range and 22-for-24 from the free-throw line, but the poor rebounding margin, the late scoring drought, and eight second-half turnovers were costly. ECU also outscored the Owls by 32-12 in the paint in the second half and by 44-22 on the evening.
Mashburn’s 22 points led five Owls in double figures. Stanford had 14 points, Berry and forward Elijah Gray scored 13 apiece, and Dezonie added 11. Felton scored 19 of his game-high 23 points in the second half for ECU, which got 11 points from Temple transfer Jordan Riley.
After sitting out Temple’s home win over Wichita State last Friday due to personal reasons, point guard Lynn Greer III was back in uniform Wednesday night. He grabbed three rebounds in five minutes off the bench, with all of his playing time coming in the first half.
