Who would have guessed that getting blown at Villanova might just have been the best thing to happen to the Temple basketball team this season. Or maybe it was the ride down the Broad Street Line to get to the Wells Fargo Center to destroy Kansas. Coming off a disappointing season a year ago and then losses to the Wildcats and the St. Joe’s Hawks in Big 5 play, one had to wonder about the state of Temple basketball.
Well after the last two weeks those Big 5 losses and last season’s disappointment have been washed away. They are on a four game winning streak, which includes the blow out win over Kansas and a victory over defending National Champion Connecticut on the road.
One of the factors of the turnaround could be that both Jesse Morgan and Devin Coleman became eligible. These two guards look to bring back Temple basketball to the NCAA tournament. Morgan is from Olney and is averaging 16 points per game.
‘I would say we’re still really figuring us out as a group,’ Will Cummings said. ‘We just inserted two new guys into the lineup, we’re really just going to practice each and every day learning new stuff we didn’t know about ourselves.’
In the blowout of Kansas, the Owls led from start to finish and won the game 77-52. It was the sixth time in the last seven years that Temple has won a game against a top-10 ranked opponent. The students rushed the court after the victory.
‘It’s indescribable right now,’ said Cummings after the game. ‘It sinks in when they rush the court, really. It happened my freshman year when we beat Duke, and I really just wanted it to happen again.’
A fast start against the Jayhawks was a big reason why they won the game; they started out with a 12-2 run in the first 6 minutes of the game. The Owls would go on to shoot 58 percent from the field in the game and limited the Jayhawks to just 32 percent. Temple also forced the Jayhawks into 17 turnovers in the game. Those turnovers turned into 21 points.
‘We have to build on this defensive effort,’ Coach Fran Dunphy said. ‘We’ve got to say to ourselves we were as good as we can be defensively. I think we’re going to be able to score, but defensively is where we really have to be as good as we can be.’
Kansas was not the only big win during the winning streak. The streak includes wins over Delaware and Delaware State. The Owls then opened up conference play with an OT win at Connecticut.
The 57-53 win over the Huskies was the first time in almost 30 years that Temple has knocked off a defending national champion. It was also the first win for the Owls over the Huskies since 1964.
The game came down to the final possession of the overtime. The Owls were up 55-53 when Connecticut’s Daniel Hamilton was fouled on a 3 point shot with 2.8 second remaining. He missed the first two free throws and then an intentional miss on the third shot he committed a lane violation. Cummings was fouled on the inbound and he then hit 2 free throws at the line for the Owls to seal the victory.
Morgan led Temple with 17 points in the game he also had a career high 6 rebounds.
Temple returns home on Sunday to try and continue the win streak against Central Florida at the Liacouras Center in a conference game.
For the Owls maybe a blowout loss might end being the turning point a season that could end with a bid to the big dance.
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