After falling behind by as many as 16 points in the second half, Temple roared all the way back to take a lead over Rhode Island Saturday night up at the Hall of Fame Classic.
Then Sebastian Thomas took matters into his own hands.
Thomas, the Rams’ leading scorer, ended the game on his own personal run, scoring the last six points to send the Owls home with an 85-79 loss at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Mass.
Temple tied the game at 79-79 with 1:16 to go with the help of a tough baseline jumper from Shane Dezonie, and the Owls had a chance to pull ahead inside the game’s final minute, but Jamal Mashburn Jr. missed a contested layup with 43 seconds left.
That’s when Thomas won the game.
A 6-foot-1, 175-point point guard who played his first two seasons at Rhode Island, transferred to Albany last season and then came back to the Rams this season, Thomas put a dagger in the Owls with a 4-point play with 21 seconds left. He drained a three, drew a foul from Quante Berry in the process and hit the ensuing foul shot to put Rhode Island (11-1) ahead by four.
Ten seconds later, Thomas came up with a steal at the other end and knocked down two more foul shots to put the game out of reach for Temple, which fell to 7-5 and saw its three-game winning streak come to an end.
While Thomas stole the show down the stretch, Javonte Brown was the deciding factor Saturday night. Rhode Island’s 7-foot center hurt the Owls with a game-high 21 points on 9 of 11 shooting to go with a game-high 10 rebounds. A Western Michigan transfer who started his career at UConn and then played two seasons at Texas A&M before seeing a big jump in his game with the Broncos in the MAC last year, Brown scored 14 of his points in the second half on 6 of 7 shooting.
Mashburn, Temple’s leading scorer, heated up a bit and scored nine second-half points after getting just five on 1 of 9 shooting in the first half. He gave Temple the lead on three different occasions inside the last 5:36 seconds, but the Owls just couldn’t close out what would have been a nice neutral-site nonconference win. Rhode Island’s 21-4 run to open the second half left Temple with a lot of ground to make up before it clawed back but ultimately fell short.
Forward Steve Settle scored a game-high 18 points for Temple, with 12 coming in the first half to help the Owls keep pace and lead by a point at halftime at 36-35 with Mashburn struggling. Freshman forward Dillon Battie gave the Owls 14 very efficient minutes off the bench, shooting 4-for-4 from the floor and scoring eight points. Fellow freshman forward Babatunde Durodola started again but struggled, picking up two fouls in the game’s first 10 minutes and going scoreless on the night in six minutes.
Sophomore forward Zion Stanford, who missed the Davidson win with an injured ankle, returned to the lineup Saturday and scored five points in seven minutes off the bench. Freshman guard Aiden Tobiason started but played just 10 minutes and missed both shots he took. Forward Elijah Gray, who hit the game-winning shot against Davidson, scored eight points in 17 minutes off the bench but picked up four fouls as he spent a good portion of the night trying to defend Brown with a four-inch height disadvantage.
Rhode Island, which got its first win over its former Atlantic 10 foe in eight tries, shot 52% (29 of 56) on the night, including 57% (14-25) in the second half. Temple shot 45% (29-64) from the floor and 9-23 from three-point range, with Settle knocking down six of those threes, a career high.
The Owls will play again in eight days when they host Buffalo Sunday, Dec. 29 at 3 p.m. at the Liacouras Center.