Tied at 61 with under 30 seconds to go, Temple put the ball in the ands of their leading scorer Quenton DeCosey and he delivered with the game-winning jumper with 3 seconds left in the game. This is a game Temple could not lose and DeCosey made sure of that giving them a 63-61 victory.
Obi Enechionyia continues to play well and he once again led the Owls in scoring with 18 points and also had 8 rebounds in the contest. The struggles of Quenton DeCosey continued as he was only 6-18 from the floor, but did score 16 points including the game-winning basket as mentioned before.
UCF dominated Temple in the paint and that was in large part to the knights 7’6 center Tacko Fall, who proved be a nuisance inside all game long. Fall had a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds, also blocking five shots.
Temple stayed out of the paint most of the game to avoid embarrassment and they looked to the three-ball where Devin Coleman had a huge impact contributing 12 points off the bench all on three’s. Daniel Dingle had a quiet game stringing together only eight total points with five of them coming off free throws.
The Owls force UCF into many bad decisions, who turned the ball over 12 times leading to 13 easy points for Temple. Josh Brown and Jaylen Bond only combined for nine points, but Brown did dish out nine assists and came fairly close to a double-double, just an assist and two rebounds shy.
Temple made this game way closer than it had to be and it almost cost them dearly with so little margin for error in the position they are currently in right now. The Owls continue to sit atop of the conference standings by a slim margin and they need to win out to keep their hopes of a trip to the NCAA Tournament alive.
Temple will be back home on Thursday for a 7 PM rematch against Memphis who beat the Owls early in the year by 2 points in the final seconds.
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