Zion Stanford went to the line with four minutes left in Temple’s game against South Florida Wednesday night with a chance to stretch the Owls’ lead to five. Instead, both of his shots clanked off the rim, and the misses gave the Bulls some life.

Fast forward to the waning moments of a tie game, and Stanford had the ball in his hands again, this time with a chance to win it.

Stanford drove to his right and hoisted a shot that Bulls guard Kobe Knox swatted away, seemingly dashing a chance for Temple to win in regulation. However, Stanford corralled the miss and sent a high-arching shot from the baseline that dropped through the bottom of the net at the buzzer to give Temple a 73-71 win that snapped the Owls’ six-game losing streak.

“After the ball came out of my hands, it was a split-second decision,” Stanford said. “I knew there was time still left. I didn't hear the buzzer, so I just had to put one up here and went in.”

With three of their top four scorers out of the lineup with injuries in Jamal Mashburn Jr., Steve Settle and Quante Berry, Stanford became the offensive engine for the Owls (15-14, 7-9) by pouring in a game-high 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting. Despite a shaky start that saw him miss four of his first five shots, Stanford locked in and missed just one more shot the rest of the half. He led the team with 13 first-half points and helped Temple shoot out to an early 8-2 lead just four minutes into the game.

With Berry out, Temple relied on both Stanford and guard Shane Dezonie as its main ball handlers. It came with mixed results, as Dezonie turned the ball over six times, but Dezonie offered a boost on the glass with a game-high nine rebounds.

“Basically just keeping a next-man-up mentality,” Stanford said. “That's what I focus on. Sometimes, players on your team may get injured or may get sick and things like that. So there's always that trust in your work, being ready and your numbers come.”

Temple took control of the game behind Stanford’s efforts, but its defensive woes persisted in the first half. The Owls went into the game missing their two best defenders in Berry and Settle. And while freshman guard Aiden Tobiason helped soften the blow, the absences were noticeable.

USF forward Jamille Reynolds, who played at Temple two seasons ago under former head coach Aaron McKie, had 25 points and 12 rebounds in the team’s last matchup down in Tampa, the game that started Temple’s six-game losing skid. That momentum carried over into Wednesday night, as the former Owl had 14 of his 17 points in the first half while the Bulls shot 59% from the field in the first 20 minutes. Guard Jimmie Williams joined Reynolds in double-figure scoring with 10 points of his own.

Most of Temple’s mistakes were seemingly self inflicted. Freshman forward Dillon Battie, who took Settle’s spot in the starting lineup, got into early foul trouble, and the 6-foot-8, 210-pound Battie had problems guarding the 6-11, 275-pound Reynolds.

But despite Temple being undermanned, the Owls went into the half down just three at 39-36.

“[Reynolds is] super talented,” Fisher said. “He can score, great balance. He plays hard. He's got good footwork. He's just a tough matchup.”

Temple started to move the ball forward during the second half and was fueled by its depth. Guard Matteo Picarelli, who has turned into a reserve on this year’s roster after starting last year, gave Temple a boost. He had six of his season-high 11 points in the second frame, recording his best scoring output since Temple played USF back on Jan. 24 of last season.

Battie also helped give Temple an edge, logging a season-high 17 minutes after being in timeout for much of conference play. He hustled on virtually every possession and picked up nine points in his first career start to help Temple take a 50-45 lead.

“I'm a big believer in practice,” Fisher said. “He's had his best four practices of the season leading up to both the last two games. We've shared that with him. He's been really coachable. It's easy when you're not playing to shut it down. He isn't. He's in the gym. He's working on his game.”

USF (13-16, 6-10) started to mount a comeback and kept the game close the majority of the way, but Temple’s defense clamped down after the break, holding the Bulls to just 39% shooting from the field over the last 20 minutes. Temple’s defense, which ranks 326th out of 355 Division-I teams in scoring defense, adjusted and held Reynolds to just three points while the big man was stuck in foul trouble for much of the period.

USF pulled ahead at 70-69 on a Knox jumper with 2:32 to go on a shot that proved to be the Bulls’ last field goal of the night, and USF pushed its lead to two when Reynolds hit 1 of 2 from the line at the 1:54 mark of the second half. Stanford tied the game with a bucket 45 seconds later, and Dezonie, who had just four points and went 0-for-7 from the field with six turnovers, came up with a clutch steal on Knox to keep the game tied.

“He does all the dirty work,” Fisher said of Dezonie, “the little things that don't always show up in a box score. There are a couple times they started to try to go at matchups, and there's a couple times he just stayed down.”

Nine seconds after Dezoie’s steal, Fisher called a timeout. Coming out of the break, Stanford offered up an air ball that missed wide left of the rim, and former Temple wing forward Quincy Ademokoya briefly rebounded the miss after it was tipped around twice, bringing about an important change of possession considering the Owls would have otherwise been out of luck on a shot-clock violation because Stanford’s miss never hit the rim. But Tobiason came up with the next-most-important play of the night when he stole the ball from Ademokoya with 12 seconds to go.

Fisher called a timeout a second later to set up Stanford’s late-game heroics.

The 71 points USF scored marked the fewest Temple has allowed since a 73-70 win at Rice back on Jan. 11.

Mashburn, who missed his sixth of Temple’s last seven games, was in a boot, but Fisher said the nation’s second-leading scorer will be out of it at the end of the week and have his toe reexamined Saturday. Settle, Fisher said, will likely be back when Temple plays again next Tuesday at Tulsa. Berry injured his finger and had a bandage on his right pinky and ring finger, but Fisher is hoping the break will give the Owls’ starting point guard a chance to play at Tulsa.