City of Basketball Love

Jerome Taylor (@ThatGuy_Rome)
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When a player scores the most points for his program in almost two decades, that’s almost always the story. When a team loses on a controversial no-call in overtime, that’s about as sure of a lede as a writer can ask for. 

Both things happened on Tuesday night for Temple during an 89-87 overtime loss to Vanderbilt.  Damian Dunn poured in 38 points for the highest Owls offensive total since 2004 and a silent whistle late in OT gave Temple its second overtime loss in three games, yet the most significant story surrounding the Owls was a 13-word quote and an emoji. 

“I just played the guys who I felt wanted to be out there,” Temple head coach Aaron McKie said, in response to a question about Khalif Battle’s minutes on Tuesday night. 

The redshirt-sophomore guard played a total of 19 minutes in the game, his third game coming off the bench. And as a proven scorer (21.4 ppg in seven games last season before fracturing his left foot), his lack of time raised some eyebrows. 

Once McKie’s quote made it to Twitter, Battle’s response elevated those eyebrows even more. The sophomore tweeted a crying, laughing emoji in response to the quote before deleting the tweet.

Undoubtedly, more has happened behind the scenes since this article was written. But after coming off a high of beating Villanova, the Owls find themselves in a precarious position, and that’s before diving into Tuesday night’s loss. 

For Temple’s follow-up performance after their win over Nova, they went back to what had been working early in the season – Dunn. 

But it wasn’t enough. 

"It hurts a lot. Especially when we thought we had momentum after the big win on Friday night,” Dunn said.  “It says something to us now. We need to go back to the drawing board.”

Dunn was fantastic on offense, his scoring output the most for a Temple player since 2004, and he did it efficiently – shooting 13-of-18 from the field, 5-6 from the free throw line, and 7-9 from beyond the arc. 

“Dame was great, I felt bad because I was trying to get him out of the game and give him a little blow, but I said, ‘I need you,’… I thought he was outstanding,” McKie said.

But on the other end of the court, the Owls' defense was a letdown. 

“You can’t win games when they go 9-18 from three, 48 points in the paint. It’s hard to overcome,” McKie said. 

In its win over Villanova, Temple’s defense picked its poison, opting to lock down ‘Nova’s shooters. 

Against Vanderbilt, the Owls got a double dose of the poison Vanderbilt was serving. Liam Robbins and Jordan Wright met little resistance at the rim, scoring 21 and 18 points, respectively, from inside the arc. 

Myles Stute seemingly met the same amount of resistance on the perimeter. He came off screens and had enough room to fire away all night, leading to a 21-point performance, going 7-10 from deep. 

“This was a desperate team coming in, and they just wanted it more. We talked about their personnel the last couple of days… we just didn’t do a good job taking their strengths away,” McKie said.

“The only thing we talked about was defense in the locker room… I’m constantly going over what I expect out of them, and the first thing is always communication. It’s verbal and non-verbal communication.”

After falling behind by as many as 13 points in the second half, the Owls started to find the hot hand again, whether it was Dunn or Zach Hicks from deep (20 points, 6-13 3PT). 

The Owls eventually tied the game after Hicks got fouled during a scrum for a rebound. The sophomore knocked down both free throws with 12.5 seconds remaining in regulation.  And Temple’s timely defense sent the game to overtime. 

In overtime, the matchup got even tighter.

With 38 seconds left, Dunn made a nifty hesitation move in transition before driving to the bucket, getting fouled and converting an and-one to give the Owls a 1-point lead. 

On the next Vanderbilt possession, Ezra Manjon found some space and made a mid-range jumper to give Vandy the lead right back with 22 seconds remaining. 

Dunn had a chance to be a hero for the Owls once again, but this time, as he drove the traffic and absorbed the opposition's contact, the referees’ whistles were silent. 

“I was just trying to get downhill, trying to get my defender in the air. I thought I had some contact, and I wanted to throw myself into him, and the ref didn’t call it,” Dunn said about his late-game opportunity.

The Owls did get one more chance to leave the Liacouras Center victorious. 

But with six seconds remaining in the extra frame, the Owls were unable to get the ball to Dunn, and Hicks had to settle for a contested step-back three that Robbins blocked. 

“We botched that,” McKie said of the last play before outlining that the action should’ve ended with the ball in Dunn’s hand, but because of Vanderbilt’s defense and a poor setup, Hicks had to take the shot.

Now on top of an early season loss, the Owls have to overcome an early season off-court distraction from one of their most productive players. 

And this is all before their upcoming three-game-in-five-day stretch, starting with a game against Rutgers in the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase in Connecticut on Friday. They’ll follow that up with the Empire Classic that begins Monday against St. John’s at the Barclays Center