City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Temple created another storm in Philadelphia.

Students poured onto the floor at the Liacouras Center after the Owls pulled off an 89-80 upset against No. 8 SMU on Sunday afternoon. The Mustangs entered the contest – which was pushed back a day as the region got pummeled by a blizzard – as the only undefeated Division-I college basketball team in the country. They headed back to Dallas with a loss.

“Can you believe Temple stormed the court against SMU?” SMU coach and former 76ers head man Larry Brown asked during his postgame press conference.

That wasn’t the only thing Brown did not expect to see against the Owls. Neither he, nor pretty much anyone else at the Liacouras Center, expected the kind of shooting clinic Devin Coleman performed for Temple.

Coleman was a flawless 7-for-7 on 3-pointers, 8-for-8 from the field and notched a career high 23 points. Even with hands in his face on most of his attempts in the second half, Coleman was in a zone and refused to leave.

“He was spectacular,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “And there was nothing cheap about any of the balls he had go through the basket. They were dead in the hoop, each one of them. He was great, and if you’re going to win a game against this good a basketball team and program, you need special performances. And his was certainly special today.”

Coleman, who had a previous career-high of 19 points earlier this season against North Carolina, caught fire early off the bench. The Friends’ Central graduate hit his first triple at the 10:47 mark of the first half to give Temple (11-7, 5-2 American Athletic Conference) the lead. He hit another a few minutes later and then drilled two more on back-to-back possessions late in the first half for 12 first-half points in nine minutes.

“I can’t,” Coleman said bluntly when he was asked why he was able to have the best shooting performance of his college career. “I just put it up there and they went in.”

Added Brown: “He was playing H-O-R-S-E. And nothing against him, I’ve been watching him. We wanted him to put it down and make him go right. But once he got it going, he was unstoppable. …You’re going to have a hard time beating a team when someone is shooting it that well.”

Coleman shot well above the 34.9 season 3-point percentage he carried into the game, and the Owls as a whole shot better than normal. Temple hit 14 of its 29 3-point attempts -- a 48.3 percent mark that was much better than the 31.4 percentage the team came in with. Meanwhile, SMU (18-1, 7-1 AAC) came into the game as the nation’s seventh-best 3-point shooting team (41.5 percent), but went just 3-for-14 (21.4 percent) from distance against the Owls.

Quenton DeCosey had 19 points for the Owls and also got in on the 3-point action, knocking down two triples. Daniel Dingle, who finished with 14 points, made a pair of 3-pointers as well, and his two came right after Coleman’s toward the end of the first half to send the Owls into the locker room on a 12-3 run and with a 44-34 advantage.

That lead grew to 12 immediately to start the second half, but SMU wasn’t going to let its 18-game winning streak die without some sort of run. The Mustangs made eight of their first 14 field goals in the first half and cut the Temple lead to 57-53 with 11 minutes left. But, as Temple could not do in three losses to SMU last season, the Owls responded.

Temple went on a 21-6 run over the next five-and-a-half minutes for a 78-59 advantage. The run was capped, of course, by a Coleman 3-pointer which sent the student section – which came out in force despite the weather – into a frenzy.

“I thought we played well in all three games, but we just couldn’t weather the storm,” Dunphy said of the three losses to the Mustangs last season. “Obviously, today we had to weather that storm when they cut it to four. Then we got ourselves enough of separation and got ourselves back together again. It’s just a great win for us.”

Temple got the win without starting forward Jaylen Bond, who was sidelined with back spasms. Dunphy was unsure on Bond’s status for the Owls’ Wednesday game at East Carolina. Mark Williams and Devontae Watson combined for five points and four rebounds in 26 minutes with Bond on the bench.

It was the third win over a ranked opponent for Temple this season – all of which have come in the last month during conference play. It also is the seventh time under Dunphy the Owls have downed a top 10 opponent.

“This one, I contributed it a lot, so it was probably No. 1,” DeCosey said when he was asked to compare the SMU win to other upsets he’s been a part of. “It was surreal.”