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Temple survives rough outing from Enechionyia to top Penn

12/03/2016, 7:30pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Ernest Aflakpui (above) and Temple survived a rough outing by star junior Obi Enechionyia to down Penn on Saturday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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As good as Obi Enechionyia had been through the opening stretch of the season, Temple coach Fran Dunphy had yet to see how his team would respond when his star junior finally had an off day.

He got his chance on Saturday, in a Big 5 rivalry match against Penn. And while it was far from pretty, it was a resounding answer: if nothing else, his team knows how to survive.

With Enechionyia struggling from the floor all game long, the rest of the Owls picked up the slack in a 70-64 win.

The 6-foot-10 forward out of Springfield (Va.), averaged 21.0 points and 8.4 rebounds through Temple’s opening seven games, quite a leap from his sophomore year averages of 11.0 ppg and 3.8 rpg. He was just 5-for-17 against the Quakers to get to his dozen points, however, easily his worst outing of the season.

“It’s rare for Obi, but knowing that we still have other players who make plays, that helps us out a lot,” freshman guard Alani Moore II said afterwards. “And then when we all start clicking, it’ll be very good.”

It’s the fifth win in a row for Temple (6-2, 3-0 Big 5) since losing back-to-back games to New Hampshire and Massachusetts in November.

But it was not the kind of outing that the Temple coach wanted out of his leading scorer, who seemingly couldn't miss through the Owls' first seven games.

“It (was) going to come, because teams are going to be playing him differently each and every game,” Dunphy said. “They’re going to double team, they’re going to run their bigger guys at him, so he’s got to learn to be an even better basketball player.”

Dunphy pointed to one particular shot as an example, a pull-up jumper in the second half that was blocked by Penn freshman A.J. Brodeur.

“It’s a terrific block by Brodeur, but Obi, the guy’s flying at you, how about if you shot fake and go by him and make a play?” the 11th-year coach asked rhetorically. “ He lost his mind a little bit, and he’ll learn from it; I don’t want to play many minutes without him, because that’s how good he is.”

It was clear from early on Saturday afternoon that Enechionyia didn’t quite have his rhythm, missing all nine shots he took during the opening 20 minutes, and it didn’t get much better from there.

So instead, the Owls used a scoring-by-committee approach.

Sophomore guard Shizz Alston Jr. led the way with a team-high 14 points, hitting half of his eight shots including both of his 3-pointers. Moore hit three first-half 3-pointers as part of his 12 points, with seven assists against one turnover.

Even sophomore forward Ernest Aflakpui -- not known as much of a scoring threat -- had his second double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds, including six on the offensive end.

“We’re a family, we pick each other up when we’re down,” said the Ghana native and Archbishop Carroll product, who entered the day averaging 5.0 ppg and 5.9 rpg. “It was just a moment in time that my teammates found me in an open spot, and they’re confident in me to make a shot, and I didn’t let them down.”

Penn was led by senior wing Matt Howard's 19 points and six rebounds; Brodeur, a 6-9 freshman, had 17 points and seven boards.

Enechionyia made some shots when it counted: a driving floater with 5:28 remaining that gave the Owls a six-point advantage, followed by a flying alley-oop dunk off a feed from Alston 24 seconds later to bring the Liacouras Center crowd to its feet.

Freshman guard Quinton Rose chipped in six, including two big-time reverse layups off feeds from Moore in the final three minutes of play to help the Owls stave off a potential Quaker comeback.

“Alani Moore’s passes to Quinton Rose twice on the baseline were really two very, very good plays,” Dunphy said of the two rookies, who’ve both played sizeable roles for the Owls in the early going. “They play with a lot of non-fear out there, they just go play basketball.”

Penn got to within two points in the final 76 seconds on the back of a 6-0 run, threatening to spoil the mood of a Temple crowd that was already flying high after watching their Owls win the American Athletic Conference’s football championship earlier in the day.

But a Rose layup off a feed from Moore extended the lead back to four, and Alston made it six with 29 seconds remaining after Penn’s Jackson Donahue missed the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity.

Enechionyia put the finishing touches on the win, skying high for another slam after a scramble for the ball ended up with it in Moore’s hands and the clock ticking off its final seconds.

“I thought Penn gave us everything we needed to help us be a better basketball team in the end after playing this game,” Dunphy said. “I’m hoping we have a certain something about us -- we finished today, we were a little shaky but we found a way to maintain the lead there.

“I’m confident in this group, but we’ve got to get better.”


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