City of Basketball Love

By Justin Procope (@1Procope)
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Most people would not be excited leaving the sunshine of South Florida for a winter storm in Philadelphia, but Temple had its own cold streak to take care of. 

After losing four of their last five games and returning home to the Liacouras Center for the first time in more than a month, the Owls found themselves in a tie game against Wichita State with three minutes left — a 17-point lead gone and the warmth of a home victory was in danger of slipping away.

Junior guard Hysier Miller hit a clutch three and redshirt-junior forward Steve Settle III sealed Temple’s first win of the new year with one of his career-high six steals for a 68-61 victory over the Shockers. The win marked Temple’s first conference win of the season (1-1) and moved them to 8-7 on the season overall. 

Miller’s triple was the shot of the game. The Owls were looking for an answer after seeing a 48-31 lead with 16:20 to play completely erased by the 3:13 mark.  He answered the call with a pull-up three early in the shot clock to give Temple a four-point lead with 1:52 left in the game. 

“It was a split second thought, ‘do I want to drive or do I want to shoot’, and I just stepped into the shot,” Miller said.

“It just felt natural. It felt like a shot I shoot everyday. I just knew I wanted to make that shot for my team.”

As they often do, the Owls lived and died by the 3-point shot, particularly in the first half. They began the game 2-for-10 from the outside and 4-for-19 overall from the field, as the Shockers jumped out to an early nine-point lead within the first seven minutes. 

“Shots aren’t always going to fall,” Temple head coach Adam Fisher said. “You have to control what you can control and your defense, knowing personnel, being in gaps, rebounding, that’s what you can control.”

“Best way to get easy buckets is to get your defense going. So that was something we’ve really focused on since being back.”

That defensive activity from the Owls kept the game tight early on, forcing the Shockers into ten turnovers in the first period, with Settle III responsible for four steals alone. 

Settle III had another impressive outing, impacting the game at a high level on both ends of the floor and finishing with 17 points, nine rebounds, and six steals. 

“I’m just trying to affect the game any way I can,” Settle III said. “It might not always be scoring, but just trying to make sure my impact is felt on the game.”

The offensive spark came off the bench from senior guard Matteo Picarelli, who drained three of his five attempts from long range in the first half. After a slow start, the offense finally was able to catch fire and propel Temple to a 19-4 run to close out the first half with a 36-27 lead. 

Temple picked up where they left off to start the second half, getting up threes and turning pestering defense into easy opportunities. The lead ballooned to 19, its largest of the night, after a size up three from Miller over the outstretched arm of the 6-foot-11 Quincy Ballard. 

Miller was in control of the offense all night, finishing with a game-high eight assists to go with 17 points. The team’s leading scorer on the season was patient in his attack, only taking whatever the offense was giving him. It was a good way to bounce back after an inefficient performance (6-18 FG, 0-8 3PT) in the Owls’ loss to South Florida. 

Redshirt-junior Jahlil White also had an impressive return to action Sunday afternoon after missing the last two games with a finger injury. His presence was needed as Temple was without freshman standout Zion Stanford, who was dealing with an injury. White provided key buckets and solid defense on his way to 11 points (4-10 FG) during his 23 minutes of gametime. His jumper with five minutes to play snapped a fiv- minute scoring drought that saw Wichita come all the way back to tie the game. 

While they were able to pull out the win in the end, that scoring drought is a reminder of the dangers that come with the Owl’s offensive attack. Still, Fisher doesn’t want Temple’s streaky shooting night (12-37 3PT, 25-66 FG) to discourage his players. 

“I didn’t think we’d take 37 threes today, if I’m going to be honest with you,” Fisher said. “But we have to take what the defense gives us and I have to give these guys the confidence on gameday to just be free.”

Fisher is hoping the resilience his team showed Sunday and throughout the season will set them up for success going forward. 

“We’ve been in triple overtime games, we’ve been in games where it’s down to the last possession…we’ve been in all these situations and our guys just stick together,” Fisher said. 

“We all know it’s hard when the team comes back from 19, it can be a lot of heads dropping, but I didn’t see anybody’s heads down.”

It wasn’t perfect, but Miller and his teammates are just happy to be back home. Sleet, snow, and all. 

“We love playing in front of these fans, they’re what make this place special,” Miller said. 

Fisher’s group will look forward to a favorable matchup at home Wednesday against the ECU Pirates, who could be entering on a three game losing streak of their own.