Philly Basketball 24 • 7 • 365

City of Basketball Love

Current Section

Home

Josh Brown's cluth jumper elevates Temple past Memphis

02/07/2015, 10:45pm EST

By Aron Minkoff

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)
–

Temple got the road win its been desperately looking for to boost its NCAA Tournament resume, in a place where visiting teams hardly ever win.

Memphis had lost just six times to conference foes at the FedEx Forum since the 2005-06 season, back when it was part of Conference USA. Temple made it seven.

With under a minute to play, Temple’s Will Cummings put the Owls up a point on the with a foul shot, setting up a wild 15 seconds of play.

Memphis’ Kedren Johnson, a junior guard, drove to the hoop and hit the go-ahead basket to give Memphis a one-point advantage at home with nine seconds remaining.

But Temple didn’t call timeout, and it was Josh Brown who played hero, hitting a bank-shot jumper off a feed from Cummings with 2.4 seconds left. All Memphis could do was heave the ball from half-court–which fell short, securing a 61-60 win for the Owls.

Temple trailed by as many as 16 in the first half but was able to narrow the lead to 10 at halftime.

For Memphis (14-9, 6-4 AAC), sophomore Austin Nichols led scorers with 17 points. He probably would’ve had more for it not been for a leg injury that saw the Tigers’ star player leave the game with more than six minutes remaining.

Johnson recorded 11 points, only his fifth time this season in double figures.

Reigning AAC rookie of the week, Obi Enechionyia, sat out the game with a right ankle sprain. With the 6-foot-8 freshman out, redshirt sophomore Daniel Dingle benefitted, scoring eight points and grabbing six rebounds in 25 minutes.

Jesse Morgan led Temple (17-7, 8-3) with 16 points on 3-of-12 shooting, another rough performance for the streaky-shooting senior. However, Morgan was a perfect 10-10 from the free throw line. In addition to Morgan, Cummings recorded 13 points of his own along with five assists, perhaps none bigger than his pass on Brown’s game-winning basket.

The win was the fifth in a row for the Owls, whose NCAA Tournament hopes look as strong as ever after a three-game losing streak prior to that had put them very much in jeopardy. With seven league games left to play, including four at home, Fran Dunphy could have TU back in March Madness for the seventh time in his nine seasons after missing out last year.

Temple will host Cincinnati (16-6, 7-3) at the Liacouras Center on Tuesday, February 10 at 7:30. The two teams met January 17 in Cincinnati where the Owls fell 84-53.