City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Drexel finally got its long-awaited taste of Big 5 basketball. 

The University City institution’s men’s team joined the venerable city series for the first time this year, the women expected to do the same next season. The school’s first official Big 5 game came last week, Drexel losing its season opener at La Salle. 

But Tuesday night finally saw the Big 5 arrive at 34th and Market in the form of the Temple Owls, making their first trip to the Daskalakis Athletic Center — then known as the Physical Education and Athletics Center (PEAC) — since 1985. The DAC was packed, a full student section there to support the Dragons on their historic evening. 

There was only one problem: the Owls were more than happy to ruin the party. 

Temple shook off a slow start, taking control of the game with a big first-half run and never gave up the lead, holding on late to stay unbeaten in Adam Fisher’s first season with a 66-64 win.

Temple (3-0, 1-0 Big 5) and La Salle (3-0, 1-0) will play on Nov. 29 for the right to play in the Big 5’s inaugural championship game (Dec. 2, Wells Fargo) in its new format. Drexel (1-2, 0-2 Big 5) will play in the fifth/sixth place game. 

It's the first time Temple has been 3-0 in its first three games since 2019-20. It's a small accomplishment for Fisher's first group as a head coach, no doubt, but one they're hoping is the start of something bigger, with a visit from Columbia coming on Saturday.

“If I’m being honest, [it means] nothing," junior guard Hysier Miller said. "But it’s a great feeling because we know that we’re rolling right now, we’ve gotten out of the way through three tough games so far, trying to shift our focus to the fourth."

Miller led the Owls with 19 points, though the junior from Neumann-Goretti was an unwieldy 5-of-22 from the floor and 3-of-13 from deep. He hit two clutch free-throws when he needed to, however, putting his team up three with 6.6 seconds left after a late Dragons’ rally made for a dramatic finish.

Temple was up eight points inside the final minute, but a 3-pointer and 3-point play by Drexel sophomore Justin Moore helped cut that down. 

Following Miller’s final foul shots, Moore was back at the line down three; he made the first and missed the second, teammate Amari Williams winding up with the rebound — but the Drexel star big man’s game-tying attempt rimmed out. 

“That’s Big 5 basketball," Fisher said. "We knew it was going to be a possession game, it’s just what it is, and we talked a lot about it. We take great pride in playing in the Big 5, especially going on the road in the Big 5, it’s really hard to do. Really proud of these guys."

Archbishop Carroll product Luke House led the way for the Dragons with a season-high 20-point outing, shooting 7-13 overall (4-6 3PT) as he finished five off his career mark, adding six rebounds. Moore added 17 for the Dragons.

Williams, the CAA Preseason Player of the Year, finished with eight points, nine rebounds and three blocks but was just 2-of-8 from the floor and only had one assist.

"I think everybody’s always physical with him, I think sometimes he’s getting wedged out a little bit," Spiker said. "We might have had a height advantage, but (Temple) played with an aggressive nature which allows him to get pushed out from time to time."

“We knew what type of player he is, the type of emphasis we put on him," Temple forward Sam Hofman said after contributing eight points, seven rebounds and three steals in 32 minutes, battling with Williams despite giving up at least four inches to the Drexel center. "The coaches did a great job with the scouting report and it was just a battle down there, trying to be physical and take away what he tries to do.”

Neither team shot it well — Drexel finished 22-of-58 (37.9%) from the floor, Temple even worse at 18-of-58 (31.0%). But the Owls limited their turnovers, giving it up just five times while forcing 13 Drexel miscues; it’s the fewest turnovers in any game for Temple since they committed just four turnovers on March 7, 2015 against UConn. 

Through three games, Temple’s turned it over on just 12% of their possessions according to KenPom, a number which puts them 25th in the country. Last year, they turned it over on 19.8% of their possessions (290th). That’s helped them offset a poor-shooting start to the season, as they’re 38.5% overall and 31.2% from the 3-point arc. 

“I talked in my [preseason] press conference about shooting 3s — they’re shooting them, I should have talked about making them,” Fisher joked. “I think we’re really defending and I think it starts with our communication. That’s gotta be our calling card, we’ve got to defend for 40 minutes.”

Drexel controlled the game’s opening possessions, taking a 10-3 exactly five minutes in, a couple early 3-pointers firing up the capacity crowd. Temple’s response was more than commensurate, an extended 21-3 run spanning nearly 10 minutes. 

The Dragons’ offense went cold, missing 11 of 12 shots during the stretch; the Owls weren’t exactly torching the nets on fire, but 3-pointers by Miller and Matteo Picarelli (11 points) pushed the advantage to 29-16 with 3:43 to go in the half. That advantage grew to as much as 14 before the hosts scored the final seven points of the half to go into the break down 32-25.