The phrase ‘staying together’ became a simple rallying cry when Temple went on its unexpected run last March that left the Owls a game shy of an NCAA Tournament berth.

And while the transfer portal has made roster continuity a rare luxury in today’s college basketball, there are some signs that this season’s Temple team is starting to get that message, especially after Friday night’s 91-85 win over Wichita State in the Owls’ American Athletic Conference opener.

Temple, which improved to 9-5 overall and 6-0 at home, got a team-high 24 points from Jamal Mashburn Jr. on 8 of 16 shooting to go with four assists and four rebounds in 37 minutes. After posting his ninth game of 20 or more points, it’s been evident that the Owls have their go-to scorer and one of the better guards in the country.

But in putting together a 21-5, second-half run that decided the ballgame, Temple got valuable contributions from all over the roster.

Trailing 66-62 as the game dipped under the 8-minute mark, Mashburn kickstarted the run with a jumper, but Steve Settle III scored half of his 14 points during the run, while Quante Berry chipped in five. Zion Stanford hit his only shot of the evening along the way, but it was a big corner three-pointer that opened up a 79-71 lead with 4:20 remaining.

“It's a great credit to our players,” second-year head coach Adam Fisher said after the game. “I think they made the right reads. As a coach in those situations, you're trying to put people in spots to initiate offense, and then you’ve got to have the trust in your players to go deliver. And we have great, full trust in them. I thought they made great decisions. Finding Z (Stanford) in the corner, Zion was big time. We had a lot of those guys, and we continue to do that and share the ball.

“We talked about it before the game, put your egos in the locker room. I know it sounds silly, but we just got to work on this two hours, on whatever we can do to provide winning plays, and I thought we saw that in the last five minutes.”

An unsung part of the run came when freshman guard Aiden Tobiason rebounded a missed three-pointer from Elijah Gray, got fouled and went to the line to sink two free throws that gave Temple a 68-66 lead. Justin Hill, who scored a game-high 25 points, hit a three after that to give Wichita State (10-4) a short-lived, 69-68 lead, but Berry answered with a three of his own that put the Owls back ahead for good.

The two teams hauled in 37 boards Friday night, but Wichita State had the offensive rebounding advantage at 15-11 and scored 17 second-chance points, so Tobiason’s hustle play on the offensive glass was a jolt for a Temple team that certainly needed it.

“I can speak so highly about that kid,” Mashburn said of Tobiason, who started again and scored seven points in 19 minutes. “He always stays ready. Every practice, he's ready. Every film session, he's ready. So I'm definitely not surprised that he comes in and makes a huge impact on both sides of the floor. We're looking for him to continue to do that, and he definitely will, just because of the type of kid he is. He's an amazing kid, and he has such a bright future ahead of him.”

With Lynn Greer III out of the lineup and watching the game from the Temple bench due to what Fisher called “personal reasons,” Berry started and scored 14 points in 26 minutes on 5 of 7 shooting and 2-for-3 from three-point range. Berry, who also added five rebounds and a team-high five assists, was limited to eight first-half minutes after picking up two fouls, but he collected 10 of his points and four of his five assists in the second half.

And while Gray didn’t score during the decisive second-half run, his 15 points on 6 of 12 shooting off the bench were also critical and well-earned, as he was matched up against 6-foot-11, 250-pound Wichita State big man Quincy Ballard for much of the night. He knocked down both of his foul shots on a night when Temple went 24 of 31 from the line, while the Shockers went just 16 of 28 on free throws.

Ballard posted a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds and scored on a pair of alley-oop dunks, including one that might make SportsCenter’s Top 10.

Gray seemed to embrace the challenge of scoring against Ballard despite a two-inch height disadvantage. He and several of his teammates seem to be getting it day by day as the calendar turns to January.

“It’s just about staying together,” Gray said. “We know basketball is just a game of runs at the end of the day. So all we do is take their hit, stay together as a team, communicate with each other, stay together. That’s all it really takes.”

Friday’s win might also be one that ages well for Temple. Wichita State has been without two important players for much of the season and has yet to play a game with freshman guard TJ Williams, who earned Mr. Kansas basketball honors as a high school senior. He's been out with a meniscus injury but had started to practice last month. Additionally, forward Ronnie DeGray fractured his wrist in a mid-November game against Monmouth and was hoping to be back in the lineup for conference play but did not suit up Friday night. The former UMass and Missouri forward had been averaging 7.3 points per game prior to his injury.

The Shockers, picked to finish fourth in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll, started four seniors or fifth-year players in Hill, Xavier Bell (a member of Drexel’s 2021 NCAA Tournament team), AJ McGinnis and Ballard and a junior in forward Corey Washington. Adding Williams and DeGray to a veteran team could mean Wichita State’s best basketball is still ahead.

“I believe the eight that normally play for them are all seniors, some fifth- and sixth-year seniors, and maybe one junior,” Fisher said. “We're playing two or three freshmen. Then we’re playing two sophomores. So we told them, this is a grown man's game against them.”

No timetable for Greer’s return

Beyond citing personal reasons for his absence, Adam Fisher said he did not have a timetable for the return of Lynn Greer III, the St. Joe’s transfer point guard who missed the season’s first nine games due to an NCAA rules infraction before playing in the last four.

Greer scored nine points in his season debut during a Dec. 15 win at Hofstra before chipping in four against Davidson, four against Rhode Island and two in just 15 minutes in last Sunday’s win over Buffalo. His absence Friday came after Greer started against Davidson, Rhode Island and Buffalo.

“Lynn is out right now for some personal reasons,” Fisher said when asked about Greer. “Don't have a timetable on his return, but he's part of our family. We're here to support our student athletes in any way we can. So as I get more updates, I’ll share them, but that’s all I have.”

Watch Friday night's postgame press conference videos here.