City of Basketball Love

Graham Foley (@graham_foley3)
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All summer long, Temple head coach Fran Dunphy had been pushing junior forward Obi Enechionyia to improve as a rebounder and play better inside the boards.

The Owls have played one game this season -- and so far, so good.

Enechionyia’s 14 rebounds led the team as the Owls out-rebounded La Salle by 12 in a 97-92 overtime win on Friday night at the Liacouras Center.

“It’s very reassuring,” Dunphy said after the game. “And now it’s got to become absolutely a consistent approach for him but I thought he was honed in pretty well tonight on doing a better job on the glass and I thought he did a terrific job on that.”

If Temple wants to have a successful season and defend its American Athletic Conference title, the team will have to be better at rebounding. Last season, the Owls were outrebounded on average in every game by one.

On Friday, the Owls showed signs of progress as their big guys, Enechionyia and sophomore center Ernest Aflakpui, each accumulated double-digit rebound totals as part of double-double efforts.

Aflakpui played in roughly half of Temple’s games as a freshman, averaging 1.8 ppg and 2.1 rpg in eight minutes, though he did show in a six-game starting stretch in the middle of the year that he was capable of handling more. Now fully two years removed from a knee injury suffered as a senior at Archbishop Carroll, he looks very much the part of a high-major post player.

Against La Salle, Aflakpui’s success on the boards, in conjunction with Enechionyia, was critical to the Owls’ victory.

“That was big,” Enechionyia said about Aflakpui’s contributions. “Two guys in double-doubles, we outrebounded them by 12, that makes it hard for them to win when you out rebound them like that. We both know our roles as rebounders, we knew we had to step up and that’s just what we tried to do.”

If there was one negative to Enechionyia’s game on Friday, it was his picking up four fouls that resembled his play from last year. Temple can ill-afford to have him on the bench, due to his versatility and two-way ability to affect the game, and he knows it.

Enechionyia said he has been making changes to his play in practice so he can get to the glass and commit fewer fouls.

“Last year I don’t think I don’t think I moved my feet as well as I should’ve,” Enechionyia said. “I wasn’t as quick as I should’ve been. At times I would try to use my upper body instead and that would get me into foul trouble so now I just, in practice when I’m working on getting rebounds, I just work on moving my feet, boxing out the correct way and just trying to get as many rebounds as I can.”

For the Springfield, Va. native, Friday’s performance on the boards was hard work paying off.

“That’s just something that I’ve been working on all offseason, just getting to the glass,” Enechionyia said. “I knew that with Jaylen Bond gone, someone’s going to have to step and Ernest and myself have to get the rebounds.”

Bond, who graduated in 2016, led the team in rebounds per game last season with 8.5. The next two players leading that category, Quenton DeCosey and Josh Brown, also did not play in Friday’s opener, as DeCosey also graduated and Brown is out indefinitely with an Achilles injury.

Temple players and coaches have stressed that with the losses of such key players from last season, roles are constantly shifting and many players will be asked to contribute to the team in various ways. Enechionyia, the team’s top returning scorer from last season, will have to make sure he is a presence under the net as a rebounder as well as a scorer.

Temple’s victory against La Salle on Friday answered a lot of questions that swirled around the team leading up to the start of the season. The Owls’ 97 point production in 45 minutes of play showed that despite their losses of DeCosey (15.9 ppg) and three other seniors from last season, they could still score efficiently.

The team’s 47 rebounds, compared to the Explorers’ 35, showed the team has worked to address the lack of a stable presence under the net.

If the Owls can continue to see outstanding play in these facets of the game, they may be able to prove the doubters wrong and have an exciting season. Temple’s next test will be at home on Monday, Nov, 14 against University of New Hampshire.

“Very proud of our guys, it was a terrific win for us,” Dunphy said after the game. “We’ll be happy for a few more hours and then we’ll try to get ourselves ready to go for Monday.”