Temple's five-game win streak ends with a 68-49 loss at St. Joe's

After not playing each other for the first time since the 1930-31 season in 2020-21, Temple and Saint Joseph’s renewed their rivalry Saturday afternoon in a 68-49 win for the Hawks.

St. Joe’s hot start

The Hawks started the game hot, making seven of their first eight shot attempts and forcing Temple to use two timeouts before the under 12:00 media timeout.

At the under 12:00 media timeout, freshman guard Jeremiah Williams had scored or assisted on 8 of Temple's 10 points as the Owls trailed 21-10 on 5-for-16 shooting. Williams finished with 12 points, four assists, and four rebounds on 5 of 14 shooting.

Four minutes later, it was the same story. Temple was shooting 6-for-24, including 0-6 from three as the Hawks pushed their lead to 26-12.

“I can’t sit up here and say we’re going to outgun somebody,” third-year Temple head coach Aaron McKie said.

With 3:43 left in the first half, Temple had only converted one field goal in the last 6:17, a Jahlil White layup.

“I thought we were a step slow in everything that we were doing,” McKie said.

Poor shooting

Neither team shot well all game. The Hawks were 21 of 54, including 8 of 24 from three.

Temple was 20 of 64 and 2-for-20. The Owls didn’t make their first three until Damian Dunn hit one with 5:50 to go that cut the Hawks' lead to 58-44.

Both teams had trouble keeping it a clean game, with St. Joe’s fouling 20 times to Temple’s 19. The Owls shot just 7 of 18 from the foul line.

“They took us out of our offense,” Williams said. “They threw a different look at us that we hadn’t seen all year.”

White was responsible for almost half of Temple’s free throw attempts, shooting a dismal 1-for-7 throughout the game. With fellow Wildwood, New Jersey native Jordan Hall matched up with him for most of the afternoon, the freshman was left by his defender whenever he caught the ball behind the three-point line.

The freshman had a lot of positives to take away from the game, though. The Hawks’ veterans targeted him physically and verbally all game, and the freshman never backed down, tallying 11 points with two steals and six rebounds.

St Joe’s turned Temple’s misses, and five of its own, into a 30-16 rebounding advantage at the half and 48-38 in total. Temple went into Saturday’s game ranked 49th in the country in rebounding.

Big Five emotions

As the first half began to wind down, emotions began to rise as Dunn got engaged in some shoving with St. Joe’s junior guard Cameron Brown. While that was going on, Hall was trash talking White, making sure the freshman knew his Owls were trailing at the moment.

“We knew we needed to bring a level of ‘brawl mentality’ to win this game,” third-year head coach Billy Lange said of his team.

At halftime, the Hawks led 37-22.

Turning point

Temple went on a 13-3 run, starting at the 13:35 mark of the second half. Down 46-39, Dunn began to tell Hawks forward Taylor Funk that the Owls are "here now." After more chirping on the baseline, Dunn was called for a technical foul.

“It was all in the heat of the moment,” Funk said.

Funk made both free throws and started a 9-2 run that halted all of Temple's comeback momentum. Hall then scored 11 points, including three three-pointers, in a span of 2:57 that put the final nail in Temple's coffin as the Hawks lead 65-44 at the under-4:00 media timeout.

“That took the air out of our sails,” McKie said. “At that point of the game, I thought [the call] was unnecessary.”

Hall finished with 26 points and eight rebounds on 8 of 15 shooting, including 4 of 6 from three.

“When I’m having fun, I feel like I’m at my best,” Hall said.

Temple’s next game is a Wednesday night home game in the conference-opener against UCF.