Temple Hold On Against NC State to Advance

In their opening game of the NCAA tournament, Temple continued the recent success of the Atlantic 10 conference in beating a talented NC State squad.  The Owls jumped out to a 16-point halftime lead behind some hot three-point shooting and an 11-3 turnover differential (finishing with a 13-5 edge for the game).  Then, down 18 in the second half and with the end of their season staring them in the face, NC State finally picked up the defensive intensity, going on a 13-3 run to get back into the game.  The Wolfpack would pull within as close as 3 points in the closing minutes but the Owls held on for a 76-72 victory.

Khalif Wyatt came up huge for the Owls, scoring a game-high 31 points.  Wyatt played through a left thumb injury suffered in the second half to drain nearly all of his clutch free throws down the stretch, finishing 12-14 from the foul line.  The Owls’ leading scorer set the tone early, carving up the porous Wolfpack defense, scoring in the paint and dishing out a team-high 5 assists.

Temple big man Anthony Lee was limited with concussion-like symptoms, sidelining Temple’s best interior defender for much of the game against the powerful NC State front line.  However, in his absence Jake O’Brien had a huge performance, finishing with 18 points on 4-6 shooting behind the arc, including 13 points in the first half as Temple built its big lead.

As expected, the Wolfpack dominated the game on the interior.  C.J. Leslie finished with 20 points on 8-12 shooting, and Richard Howell had 14 points and 15 rebounds.  However, the Owls surprisingly out-shot NC State by a wide margin from behind the arc.  Temple finished 7-18 from downtown, including a torrid 5-11 in the first half, as their shooting prowess overcame the usually effective Wolfpack perimeter defense.

The Owls will move on to likely face the #1 seed Indiana Hoosiers (Indiana plays James Madison later this afternoon).  Like NC State, Indiana features a good balance offensively between an interior and outside attack.  However, unlike the Wolfpack, the Hoosiers actually play defense.  The Owls will have to build off this strong performance and play 40 minutes like they did in the first half today to win again on Sunday.