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Quick Report: Temple 68, NJIT 63

12/17/2016, 3:45pm EST
By Josh Verlin & Jillian Coghill

Temple's Obi Enechionyia (above) throws down a dunk in the first half of the Owls' 68-63 win over NJIT. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Jillian Coghill (@hooplove215)

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A free-firing NJIT squad put a good scare into Temple, knocking down triple after triple but missing two key late attempts as the Owls were able to survive with a 68-63 win.

At First…
With Temple senior Josh Brown on the bench due to soreness in his surgically-repaired Achilles tendon, the Owls started the first half a little slow. After the first time-out, NJIT’s Chris Jenkins started to heat up a pair of 3s, beginning a 15-4 stretch that left the Highlanders up 19-13 nine minutes before halftime. A pair of Obi Enechionyia alley-oop dunks helped swing the momentum back in Temple’s favor, and the Owls took a 31-30 lead into the half.

A see-saw opening to the second half saw NJIT take a four-point lead with 12:33 left before Temple regained momentum for good. An 8-0 Owls run was capped off by an Alani Moore triple, which came as the result of Enechionyia grabbing a missed FT and finding the guard open in the corner. The Owls went up as many as nine with 5:47 left, but a trio of 3-pointers by NJIT got the Highlanders back into it, and it was tied with three minutes to play on an Abdul Lewis layup.

Turning Point…
NJIT’s Rob Ukawuba gave NJIT tied things up with a minute to play on a tip-back, but Temple’s Shizz Alston Jr. restored a two-point advantage immediately after with a left-handed layup. Highlanders senior Damon Lynn misfired badly on a 3-point attempt and Alston was fouled shortly after, hitting both ends of a 1-and-1 to restore the two-point advantage for the home team with 22 seconds to play. Another Lynn miss from deep sealed the Temple win.

Standout Stars…
Temple had an incredibly balanced offensive effort, as all eight Owls players to see minutes on Saturday got on the scoreboard before halftime; each of the octet finished with at least three points, and six players scored eight or more. Enechionyia led Temple with 13 points, grabbing eight rebounds; Daniel Dingle added 11 points and Alston 10 plus four assists.

Lynn wasn’t shy about tossing up shots, connecting on nine of his 24 attempts from the field, adding a game-high 25 points to the Highlanders’ efforts. This performance isn’t anything new for the senior guard from Hillside, NJ, who has started all 110 games during his career. Lynn is currently NJIT’s all-time leading Division I scorer (2,015 points), and is just 14 points away from becoming the Highlanders’ all-time scoring leader including their time as a D-III school.

Noteworthy Number(s)...

.394: NJIT came into the game sixth in the country in 3-point attempts (341), an average of more than 28 per game. They bombed away as usual against the Owls, going 13-for-33 from beyond the arc. Temple was 7-for-18 from deep (38.9 percent).

6: Temple did a good job of hanging onto the ball, with only six turnovers, to the Highlanders, who force over 16 turnovers per game on average. This is the Owl’s second lowest number of turnovers this season, only beat by their five turnovers to St. Joe’s. The lack of turnovers is becoming a trend for Temple, only giving the ball up 18 times over their past three games. 

3: NJIT attempted just three foul shots for the game, hitting two of them. Temple was 15-for-18 from the line (83.3 percent).

Up Next…

Temple (8-4) vs. Yale (6-4) -- Thurs., Dec. 22, 7 PM

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