City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Temple was in need of a wake-up call.

The Owls looked drowsy over the opening 11 minutes of a home game against NJIT, allowing the Highlanders to open up a five-point advantage in a mostly-quiet, half-empty Liacouras Center on a frigid Saturday afternoon.

Shizz Alston Jr. and Obi Enechionyia made sure everybody woke up in a hurry.

The sophomore guard and junior big man connected on a pair of monster alley-oops, with the 6-10 Enechionyia throwing the first one down over NJIT’s hapless Tim Coleman.

“I was just focused on the dunk, if he wants to jump that’s fine with me,” Enechionyia said. “I wasn’t looking at him, I just wanted to finish the dunk and luckily he jumped -- luckily, for me.”

The Highlanders didn’t back down from the powerful Owls, but in the end Enechionyia and company proved to be just a little too much in a 68-63 win.

For a team that can sometimes mirror head coach Fran Dunphy, who’s as even-keeled as they come, those highlight-reel plays are a much-needed part of the Temple mix.

“I think any time you have exciting plays in the game...it can bring the bench into the game, bring the crowd into the game and we all get more energized from that,” Enechionyia said. “So I think that’s important for us, to be able to score in transition and get easy buckets like that. It’s important for us.”

“The plays definitely brought life, people started getting out of their seats and everybody’s engaged in the game, from the bench to the whole crowd,” senior Daniel Dingle added. “We definitely need that energy every time we step out on the court.”

NJIT, as usual, was content to live and die by the 3-point shot.

The Highlanders took 33 long-range attempts -- some from extra-long range, nothing new for a team that came into play averaging more than 28 attempts from beyond the arc.

Senior guard Damon Lynn was particularly effective, knocking down seven of his 15 3-point attempts on the night for a game-high 25 points; he was 6-of-13 from deep in the closing 20 minutes.

“He’s a really good player, obviously he went crazy in the second half,” Dunphy said. “We could have certainly guarded him better, but I have great respect for him, he’s a great competitor.”

It was a tie game with three minutes left, when Enechionyia knocked down a crucial 3-pointer from left wing moments before the shot clock expired.

Prior to the buzzer-beater that brought the Liacouras Center to its feet, Enechionyia had missed his first three attempts from beyond the arch, but eventually managed to connect on his next two.

“I knew there was only a couple of seconds left so I had to get a shot up,” he said. “Coach says that’s the easiest shot in the game, no pressure, so I just put it up and it went in.”

NJIT (5-8) tied it up again on a Rob Ukawuba tip-in with 56 seconds. However, Temple was able to hold off the Highlanders, with Alston contributing a layup with 44 seconds left and then two foul shots with 22 seconds remaining to push the lead to four; Lynn missed 3-point attempts after each of those buckets to help the Owls secure the win.

Aside from a 19-point loss to No. 1 Villanova on Tuesday, seven of Temple’s last eight games have all been played within single digits.

“Early on, these wins have been tough, close wins and I think it’s preparing us for when we meet Cincinnati and Yale and ECU, whoever we play,” Dingle said. “We would like to spread the margin but these close games are helping us grow, maturing quickly and learning how to close games no matter what team we play.”

Temple (8-4) had a balanced scoring effort led by 13 from Enechionyia; Dingle added 11 and Alston chipped in 10 plus four assists.

As a team, Temple had 15 assists against just six turnovers. In their last three games, the Owls have combined for just 18 giveaways.

The Owls were without the services of senior point guard Josh Brown, who’d played in their last five games as he recovers from offseason Achilles surgery but was feeling too sore to go on Saturday. Brown can play in Temple’s next game, against Yale on Thursday, but after that has to decide whether to play the remainder of the season or take a redshirt year and come back in 2017-18.

“We’ve laid out every piece of information that’s out there for him,” Dunphy said. “Again, it’s all going to be him and the doctor and the trainer and I’ll do whatever he wants to do. But the soreness concerns me.”