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Temple shuts down Penn late for Big 5 win

01/20/2018, 9:15pm EST
By Austin Petolillo

Obi Enechionyia (above) and Temple held off Penn over the final four minutes in a 60-51 win on Saturday. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Austin Petolillo (@AustinPSports)
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Close games are something the Temple Owls should be used to by now.

Since Dec. 30, Temple has played in seven games, five of which were decided by three points or less.

It appeared that Temple’s game against Penn on Saturday afternoon was going to be another tight finish for the Owls.

That was, until Temple closed out the game on a 12-0 run to beat its Big 5 rival by a final score of 60-51.

“Kids made plays,” Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said. “Shizz Alston made big plays, Josh Brown made big plays, and overall, we did extremely well on the defensive end as well so I was pleased to see that.”

The Owls were up by as much as 12 points in the second half but saw their lead dwindle away and eventually vanish with 4:02 to play after Penn’s A.J. Brodeur hit a three to put the Quakers up by three.

With 3:45 to go, Alston hit a three from the top of the key to tie the game up at 51 and then with 46 seconds to go, Brown hit a three to give Temple a four-point cushion after freshman forward J.P. Moorman II hit a running layup to give the Owls the lead on their previous possession.

But it was senior forward Obi Enechionyia who owned the second half, scoring 10 of his game-high 15 points in the second frame.

At the half, the Owls were down 25-24. Out of the break, Enechionyia came out blazing, hitting two straight three’s and going on a personal 9-1 run to put them up 36-26 with 15:36 to go in the game.

“We gave it to Obi and Obi made shots,” Dunphy said. “He made big, big shots.”

Enechionyia sealed the game with the final two points on a pair of foul shots with 10 seconds, following up on a pair by Alston as Penn came up empty-handed in the closing minutes. Overall, the Quakers didn’t score their final eight possessions, the strong finish that had been eluding the Owls of late.In its game against SMU on Jan.10, Temple was up by as much as 12 points in the second half and saw that lead vanish before the Owls came out on top 66-64. Against Cincinnati on Jan. 4, they led by as much as eight points in the second half but lost that game, 55-53.

“For some reason, we just let teams back in the game when we shouldn’t,” Enechionyia said. “But a win’s a win.”

Saturday’s contest was a real defensive battle, especially in the first half as Temple shot 31 percent from the field (8-26) and Penn shot 30 percent (9-30).

The second half though was much better for the Owls as they went 52 percent from the floor (13-25).

“I think we just buckled down,” Enechionyia said. “Offensive concepts, cutting hard, working a little bit harder on both ends and on the offensive end it showed and we were able to score the ball a little bit better.

In addition to Enechionyia’s 15 point, nine-rebound effort, Alston finished the game with 14 points and Brown ended the game with eight points.

After starting off the season 7-3 and a tournament win in the Charleston Classic, Temple dropped its next five games to give the Owls a 7-8 record, including 0-4 in AAC play.

Since falling to the hands of UCF 60-39 on Jan.7, Temple has won three of their last four games, improving their record to 10-9 (2-5 AAC).

“I hope that there’s a character that’s present in our team and it’s showing through,” Dunphy said. “Even if we have had some space that we created with us and the other team and we lose it, we keep plugging away.”

“I think we all thought it would be better than this,” Enechionyia said. “We just have to get back to how we played at the beginning, we have some games to go and I think we can show that we’re the same team that we were at the beginning of the season.

For Penn, they were led by 12 point efforts from both Brodeur and Ryan Betley, senior guard Caleb Wood chipped in 10 points.

Their game against Temple marked the first of two back-to-back Big 5 games, though not on back-to-back days. Their final Big 5 contest is against Saint Joseph’s at home on Jan. 27, then it’s back to Ivy League play on Feb. 2 against Brown.

The loss dropped the Quakers to 12-6 (3-0 in Ivy), still an improvement over their 6-9 (0-3) record at this point last season.

Up next for Temple is a game against Cincinnati on Jan. 24, a team the Owls lost to by a final score of 55-53 at home on Jan 4.

“There is no rest, you’re in the rhythm of the season and we still have a lot of work left to do,” Dunphy said. “We’ll rest tomorrow and get back at it on monday and face one of the top teams in the country.”


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