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Temple going to the Garden after downing LA Tech, 77-59

03/25/2015, 11:00pm EDT

By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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When Selection Sunday came and went and Temple found itself on the outside looking in a the NCAA Tournament, senior guard Will Cummings said he wouldn't be satisfied until the Owls emerged with a championship in the National Invitation Tournament.

The sting of the omission has faded a bit--only a bit--as Temple's made its run towards its first NIT title in 46 years, a run that continued on Wednesday night with a 77-59 victory over Conference USA regular season champions, Louisiana Tech.

But that doesn't mean the Owls are anything close to feeling good just yet.

“Not satisfied at all," Cummings said after the win. "I’ve still got two more games of college basketball in my career.”

The Owls advance to Madison Square Garden for the first time since 2002, when they finished in third place in the annual postseason tournament. Temple has two NIT championships in its history, in 1938 and 1969.

To get there, Temple (26-10) played one of its best games all season on the offensive end.

Led by Quenton DeCosey’s 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting performance, Temple shot 49.1 percent (27-of-55) from the floor, well above the team's 38.7 percent mark for the season.

And against a LA Tech defense that forced 15.9 turnovers per game, Temple coughed it up just five times while recording 16 assists. That helped keep a team that thrives in the open court to just two fast-break points all game.

"The fact that you only turn it five times against a team that's really looking to turn you over and run [helped]...I did think that we took care of the ball pretty well," Fran Dunphy said. "They take you out of a lot of stuff that you want to run, and driving it to the rim seemed to be the best offense that we had."

Senior guards Jesse Morgan (17 points) and Cummings (15) joined DeCosey in double figures, but this was a night where seemingly everybody that Dunphy sent out onto the court made a contribution.

Redshirt sophomore forward Daniel Dingle played one of his best games of the season with 20 strong minutes off the bench, contributing seven points, five rebounds and a pair of assists and blocks; junior forward Devontae Watson had nine points and four rebounds.

But it was DeCosey who was certainly the best player on the floor, as the 6-foot-5 junior wing added a career-high 11 rebounds for his first double-double. It was his second strong game this season against LA Tech (27-9), as he dropped 20 points on the Bulldogs during a victory back in November.

“I just wanted to come out, be confident and aggressive and just help my team out and get the win," he said--and he certainly did that, scoring the first five points of the game to set an early tone.

"I thought that was Q's best game of the year," Dunphy said. "I thought he was really solid taking the ball to the basket, he made a couple of 3s. The way he started the game, he shot the first shot like 'this is my game, I'm going to do well.'"

In that early-season Temple victory, an 82-75 decision in the same building, the Owls trailed the entire first half before finally taking control to open the second half. They were without three key players that night, however, as Morgan (transfer), Devin Coleman (transfer) and Jaylen Bond (ankle) were all out.

Those three certainly made a difference as the Owls never faced a deficit the second time around.

"We had a different core group of guys--Jesse didn't play, Devin didn't play, Jaylen didn't play," Cummings said. "We had a different lineup, [LA Tech] developed and got better throughout the season...we used that game film to look over and come out here and prepare, but we just had to come out here and take away the stuff they wanted to do."

Temple hit its first four 3-pointers, including two from Cummings, to help the Owls jump out to an early 25-13 lead that would become a 41-33 halftime advantage.

The momentum that LA Tech gathered right before the break briefly brought the Bulldogs within five points at 43-38, but Temple let it get no closer. Morgan knocked in back-to-back 3-pointers to help push the advantage back up to double digits, and it was a 14-point lead with under 12 minutes left when Tech really lost any hope of a comeback.

Bulldog senior point guard Kenneth "Speedy" Smith, the Conference USA Player of the Year, went down with 11:26 left on what looked like a serious ankle injury on a drive to the basket; he was unable to put any weight on it and had to be literally carried off the court.

Smith returned to the LA Tech bench for the final few minutes on crutches, with his ankle in a cast.

With its star point guard on the sideline, LA Tech couldn't find the points to keep up with Temple, which expanded its lead to as many as 18 in finishing off the win.

Forward Erik McCree led the Bulldogs with 14 points, while Michale Kyser and Raheem Appleby contributed 10 each.

Temple will face Miami (Fl.) at Madison Square Garden next Tuesday, March 31, with tipoff scheduled for 7 PM; the game will be shown on ESPN. Old Dominion and Stanford will meet afterwards in the other semifinal.

Though it's not the tournament they wanted to be in, the Owls are happy to still be playing basketball as the calendar hits April.

“Just making the season longer, it’s a good feeling being able to extend the season, no matter when you’re playing or what tournament you’re playing in," Morgan said. "It’s a good feeling, giving us some motivation going into New York.”