It was a conference game on Feb. 1, but Temple head coach Adam Fisher and guards Jamal Mashburn Jr. and Quante Berry looked like they had lived several lives as they walked to the dais to address reporters Saturday at the Liacouras Center.
In a game it never actually led until Steve Settle hit a corner three in the extra period, Temple scrapped its way through a tightly-officiated game and the ensuing foul trouble to scratch out a 98-94 overtime win over East Carolina that improved the Owls' overall record to 14-8 and 6-3 in American Athletic Conference play.
Mashburn scored a team-high 32 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the floor and 10-of-13 from the line and did not come off the floor all day. Berry added 21, Zion Stanford chipped in 19 and Settle contributed 16, including seven in overtime.
Playing without guard Shane Dezonie and center Mohamed Keita due to unspecified injuries, the Owls got outrebounded 39-26, including by 15-2 on the offensive glass, and surrendered 18 second-chance points to ECU, which dropped to 12-10 overall and 4-5 in league play.
ECU forward C.J. Walker, a player Fisher said he recruited several years ago while an assistant at Miami, looked virtually unguardable and poured in a career-high 33 points before fouling out late in overtime. RJ Felton scored 14 of his 18 points in overtime, and guard Jordan Riley added 13 points and posterized a pair of his former Temple teammates on two dunks.
Despite falling behind by 10, the wide rebounding differential and getting outscored by 54-38 in the paint, Temple did just enough to get the game to overtime, win it there and stay undefeated at 10-0 at home.
“We practice very well over here,” Mashburn said when asked why Temple has played so well at home before dropping a compliment to his head coach. “I give credit to this guy (Fisher) right here. He runs practice very well.”
“They sleep in their own beds?” Fisher deadpanned when answering the question before Mashburn offered his take.
They’ll need some sleep after Saturday after pushing the game to overtime and fighting through some questionable calls, but some of what made life difficult for the Owls Saturday was of their own doing.
Temple quickly fell behind by eight and later trailed by as many as 10 points on two occasions in the first half. At their end of the floor, the ball wasn’t moving on offense, and the Owls has just one assist on 12 first-half field goals and found themselves trailing by 33-26 at halftime.
Fisher decided to put Stanford instead of Aiden Tobiason on the floor to start the second half.
“I didn't think we played Temple basketball in the first 20 (minutes). We just needed a spark,” Fisher said. “So I thought just going with a little bit older guy, a guy that can maybe help rebound a little bit, defend a little (was part of his reasoning.) But again, Aiden was also really, really good, and maybe it takes a little pressure off him to watch for a couple minutes. So glad it worked out the right way today.”
Stanford scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half, hitting 6-of-8 from the floor while avoiding a turnover. After falling behind twice more by 10 points in the second half, Temple steadily climbed back into the game but still trailed by eight at 74-66 with 3:40 left in regulation after Walker hit 1 of 2 from the free-throw line.
From there, Temple closed out regulation on a 10-2 run and tied the game for the first time since the game’s opening possession when Settle canned a three with 1:06 left in regulation. The Owls’ fifth-year forward started 0-for-5 from the floor before scoring nine second-half points on 3-of-4 shooting beyond the arc and then followed with seven more in overtime, including a perfect 7-for-7 from the line.
“I have so much confidence with him, no matter if he’s 0-for-5, 5-for-5, it doesn’t matter,” said Mashburn, who assisted on three of Settle’s four threes. “I see him put in the work every single day, and he's a great, terrific player, and he's really a key piece for us. And him being an older guy, I mean, I can trust him with anything. So he's great along those lines.”
After Settle’s three, Felton turned the ball over along the baseline and Temple had a chance to go ahead, but Mashburn missed a right elbow jumper with 30 seconds left. On the last possession of regulation, Felton missed a turnaround jumper in the lane off the back of the rim, with Berry playing tight defense and avoiding a foul.
Berry said he did what he needed to do to lock down Felton, one of the league’s better guards, on that final regulation possession.
“We knew he wanted to get downhill,” said Berry, who shot 8-for-12 from the floor and 3-for-4 from the free-throw line, “but he'll take the three. We've seen it. He hit one late in the game when they needed it. But for me, it was just to make him uncomfortable. Just try to get out on him and make him uncomfortable and take a tough two.”
Temple took its first lead of the game when Settle hit a three 21 seconds into overtime, and the Owls scored six of the first seven points of the extra period with the help of Settle’s three and another from Mashburn to jump ahead by 82-77. The Owls never trailed again and eventually took two eight-point leads, the latter of which came with 39 seconds left after two free throws from Settle.
After a Berry turnover and two free throws by Felton made things interesting again with Temple holding a 93-90 lead with 28 seconds left in overtime, the Owls iced away the game by going 5-of-6 from the line the rest of the way. Forward Elijah Gray, who returned to the lineup after missing four games with a left leg injury, hit three of those free throws. The 6-foot-8 Fordham transfer contributed 10 points, three rebounds, an assist and a block and went 6-for-9 from the line in his 18 minutes of action.
“We've been testing him out probably all week, seeing how he felt, and just tried to gauge where he was at,” Fisher said of Gray. “He's done some individual work. Great credit to (assistant) coach (Michael) Huger, (assistant) coach (Bobby) Jordan, (assistant) coach (Chris) Clark. They've kind of worked him out, see how you feel, respond and then add into practice. And then we've been kind of (in) the last couple days, every other rep for him (in practice.) Hey, let's see how you feel. Let's see how (his leg) responds. And then we got to trust him. And he felt [good] yesterday, he felt good this morning. He woke up, felt good, and we said, ‘We'll give you some time here today, be ready to go.’ And he was great.”
Despite the fact that it assisted on just 10 of its 32 field goals and faced a lot of 2-3 zone looks from ECU, Temple still shot 58% (32-55) from the floor and wasn’t fazed much by the zone.
“We were just taking what the defense was giving us,” Mashburn said. “They were doing a lot of switching. They tried to mess us up with that zone that's worked for them in previous games, and then we were just taking what the defense was giving us and trusting our work.”
Temple has seen its fair share of zone looks against Tulane back on Jan. 19, then against Charlotte 10 days later and then again Saturday, and the Owls have gone 3-0 in those games.
“It’s those guys in the locker room,” Fisher said. “I think they do a great job of spacing. I thought we were stagnant in the first half. When we move and we pass and cut and get through and break down the zone a little bit more, we've been getting good looks, and you’ve got to knock down shots. Great credit to these guys. They knocked down some big-time shots. We knew they were going to be zoned. We focused on them playing us zone. But again, I think when you have a guy like Zion Stanford, who you can put in the middle of it and be a playmaker and make the right read, it's important. Steve Settle spacing in the floor. I think it really helps.”
After knocking off then-No. 18 Memphis back on Jan. 16 to temporarily get a share of first place in the American, the Owls have gone 3-2 since, with the two losses coming on the road at North Texas and UTSA. Temple is now in fourth place in the league standings, a game behind UAB and a half game ahead of Tulane.
The Owls now have four days to prepare for Thursday’s home game against South Florida with a nationally-televised 7 p.m. tip-off time on ESPN2.
Putbacks: Saturday's game included 43 fouls, 23 of which were called on Temple. Freshman forward Babatunde Durodola picked up two quick fouls inside the first two minutes of the second half to get to four and eventually fouled out with 7:49 left in regulation. The foul trouble limited him to just 15 minutes, one shot and one rebound. ... The Owls shot 25-of-32 from the free-throw line, while ECU went 19-for-29 at the line. ... The program honored several past players to commemorate Temple's 2,000th win, which it earned back in December against Davidson.
Watch Saturday’s postgame press conference with Adam Fisher, Jamal Mashburn Jr. and Quante Berry here.
