Was Temple’s 110-81 win over Division II Holy Family a get-right game for the Owls?

Depends upon your definition of “right.”

Temple, which improved to 5-4 win the win Tuesday night, certainly needed some good vibes after getting walloped by Villanova Saturday night in the third-place game of the Big 5 Classic. And after starting off 3-0, the Owls had lost four out of their last five games coming into Tuesday night’s game.

Back home at the Liacouras Center, Zion Stanford led the Owls with 25 points, Jamal Mashburn Jr. added 23, and freshman Aiden Tobiason logged his first college start and scored a career-high 16 points on 5 of 10 shooting, including three three-pointers. Temple got Quante Berry back on the floor after the redshirt-sophomore missed Saturday’s game with a hand injury, and Berry added 11 points in 22 minutes off the bench.

The Owls’ 110 points were the most the program has scored since getting that many against Duquesne during the 1987-88 season, and the 29-point margin of victory would give the impression that Temple cruised throughout the night.

The eye test would say otherwise.

Temple lost the rebounding battle, 34-30, and surrendered 13 offensive boards. The Owls allowed the Tigers (5-4) to shoot 47.6% from the floor and 50% (10 of 20) from three-point range. Tairi Ketner, a 6-foot-8, 265-pound forward who started his career under former Temple assistant Dwayne Killings at Albany, had his way with the Owls in the paint all night to the tune of 23 points on 10 of 19 shooting and nine rebounds. Guard Jason Shields, a high-level D-II recruit who received some low D-I attention coming out of Scranton High School, scored 18 points and knocked down four threes.

Temple twice jumped out to leads of 20 (in the first half) and 21 points (in the second half), only to see Holy Family respond with runs that kept the game competitive longer than necessary. After a Mashburn jumper put the Owls ahead by 72-51 with 14:53 to go, the Tigers went on a 14-4 run to make it a 76-65 ballgame with 10:59 to go.

Although the game was never really in doubt, it wasn’t necessarily a convincing performance that left second-year head coach Adam Fisher feeling warm and fuzzy while talking to reporters.

Fisher said his team didn’t guard the way it wanted to. He knows the defense and rebounding need to be tightened up. While he was complimentary of Holy Family head coach Ryan Haigh, Fisher said his team reverted to “too cool” stretches of basketball during the first- and second-half runs that allowed the Tigers to hang around.

“They run a lot of point action, which Charlotte runs,” Fisher explained, referring to a Holy Family offensive approach that is akin to the Princeton offense. “So we had to make sure our guys understand that. And I think they did to start. And then I think we got a little bit too cool. And then they come back, and then we got to turn it back on, but we need to play Temple basketball for 40 minutes. We haven't quite done that yet. Probably at Trenton (in a Nov. 8 103-74 win over Monmouth) was the best example of it, but we need to play a complete game.”

The Owls pulled ahead by as many as 20 points at 39-19 with 8:30 left before halftime, but Holy Family went on an 18-8 run from there to get as close at 10 at 47-37 with 2:35 left in the first half. Shields, who scored 14 points in the first half, canned two of his four first-half threes from there to cut Temple’s lead to 10 twice more before a pair of free throws from Mashburn with four seconds left gave the Owls a 55-43 lead at the break.

After Holy Family got within 78-67 with 10:59 left, Temple finally wore down the Tigers and closed out the game on a 32-14 run.

There were a couple of bright spots for the Owls, including the play of Tobiason. Two years ago at this time, the 6-5 guard out of Delaware’s St. Elizabeth High School was getting mostly D-II looks before his recruitment took off prior to the summer of his senior season.

Saturday night and Tuesday night offered glimpses of his growth. On an otherwise miserable night in the Villanova loss, Tobiason contributed three points, two rebounds, two assists and five steals. He played passing lanes with intelligence and great energy, and it earned him a start Tuesday.

“I had talked to my mom the other night about just how much hard work I put in,” said Tobiason, who opened the second-half scoring for Temple with a pair of perfectly-swished corner threes. “She’s always tells me to keep going, because whatever you put your mind to, you can do, so it’s really what I do.”

When Fisher first looked at his roster and began to assess things this summer, he said he once considered redshirting Tobiason. But Berry was out Saturday, Shane Dezonie missed Tuesday night’s game with a wrist injury, and Fisher said guard Jameel Brown is out due to personal reasons with no timetable set for his return.

While their absences have left some available minutes, Fisher said Tobiason has earned them.

“There's a clip that we're going to actually share with our team on Thursday,” Fisher said, “(Miami Heat head coach) Eric Spoelstra talking about, ‘… when you get your chance to go out there, it's got to be so hard for me to take you out of the game.’ And [Tobiason] is doing that. Like, there were a couple times tonight where I'm about to sub him out, and he's diving, going up and getting offensive rebounds. Is he doing everything perfect? No, but he sure as heck playing hard.”

The bigger story for Temple moving forward is that the Owls will welcome the return of point guard Lynn Greer III and assistant coach Chris Clark, both of whom are now done serving their nine-game suspensions due to NCAA infractions. Greer, who averaged 10.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists with St. Joe’s last season, is a pure and experienced point guard the Owls could certainly use. He’s been able to practice with the team during his absence, and Fisher said he wasn’t sure if he would start Greer Sunday at Hofstra.

“He brings leadership and a lot of experience to help our team grow in things that we lack,” said Stanford, who put together an impressive stat line of 9 of 13 shooting, including 3-for-5 from three-point range to go with five assists, four rebounds, two steals, a block and just one turnover. “He shares the ball, gets everybody together, and his past shows that’s what he can do now.”

Clark, a former player under both John Chaney and Fran Dunphy, coached under Dunphy and then survived the coaching changes from Dunphy to Aaron McKie and McKie to Fisher. He has not been able to be with the team at the facility or have contact with the program.

What has it been like being away from Clark? Fisher used the word miserable three times.

“He's part of our family,” Fisher said. “It's like not talking to a family member for 37 days. I’ll give him a big hug tomorrow, and then tell him to get his butt back to work. The vacation is over.”

Watch Tuesday night’s postgame press conference with Adam Fisher, Aiden Tobiason and Zion Stanford here.