Quick Report: Temple 78, East Carolina 60

Devin Coleman's 3-pointer just before halftime helped propel Temple to a 78-60 win against ECU on Saturday night. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Temple’s up-and-down year at home continued with a Jekell-and-Hyde performance against East Carolina, with a bad first half followed by an impressive second of a 78-60 win on Saturday night.

At First…
A hot-shooting East Carolina squad hit six of nine 3-point attempts in the first half, getting two from Clarence Williams and three from Caleb White. Meanwhile, the Pirates’ defense forced Temple to attempt to respond in kind, though the Owls could only muster 5-of-16 from beyond the arc over the same period. That allowed ECU to open up an 11-point advantage on two separate occasions, the latter of which made it 38-27 at the 1:44 mark of the first half.

Turning Point…
A 12-0 run that spanned halftime put Temple up 42-38, the Owls’ first lead since it was 5-4. East Carolina responded, and it was a 50-50 game with 11 minutes remaining when the decisive run occurred. An Obi Enechionyia 3-point play started off a seven-minute span where the Owls forced four turnovers and outscored the Pirates 21-4, capping it off with 3-pointers from Josh Brown and Devin Coleman that served as the daggers with under four minutes to play.

Standout Stars…
Quenton Decosey came within four points of his career-best, tying his season high with 24 points to lead all scorers. The 6-foot-5 senior wing shot a nifty 8-of-13 from the floor and 5-for-8 from 3-point range, marking the first time since his sophomore year that made five-or-more 3-pointers in a game. Coleman followed him up with 17 points, while Brown had 12 and eight assists plus six rebounds.

White paced East Carolina with 14 points, though he only had three in the second half; Williams had 10 of his 12 in the first half as well.

Noteworthy Number(s)...
23: Temple outscored East Carolina by 23 points over the final 20 minutes, taking the second half by a score of 45-22. That included runs of 9-0 plus the 21-4 spurt; the Owls shot 17-of-29 (58.6 percent) in that half plus 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) from 3-point territory, while ECU was just 8-of-26 (30.8 percent) to close out the game.

Up Next…
Temple (8-6, 3-1 American) @ Memphis (Jan. 13, 8 PM, CBSSN)
East Carolina (8-8, 0-3 American) vs. SMU (Jan. 13, 6:15 PM, ESPNNews)