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Newcomers lead hot-shooting Temple to 82-62 win over Delaware

11/18/2014, 6:00pm EST

By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Temple head coach Fran Dunphy has referred to his two mid-season additions as “shot-makers.”

If the way the Owls shot the ball against Delaware in Jesse Morgan and Devin Coleman‘s debut is any indication, what they have might be contagious.

Dunphy’s squad knocked down a season-high 16 3-pointers, just three off the school record, shooting 48.5 percent from beyond the arc in a 82-62 road win over the Blue Hens on Thursday night at the Bob Carpenter Center.

“In practice, guys are just unselfish and playing, passing, moving, cutting,” Coleman said. “Coach does a good job of putting guys in certain situations and it was just flowing tonight.”

Eight different Owls hit from long-range, with the newcomers combining for seven treys in their first game in Cherry and White.

Coming into the game, Temple (7-4) hadn’t made more than six 3-pointers in a single contest all year. They were ranked 341st in the country in 3-point shooting, making just 25.9 percent of long-range attempts through the first 11 games of the season.

But the addition of 6-foot-5 senior Morgan from UMass and 6-3 junior Coleman from Clemson to the backcourt could serve as some much-needed relief in that area, if their performance against Delaware (0-8) was any indication.

“I don’t know if it was us, I don’t think it was us in particular, but guys made good plays tonight,” Coleman said. “We got some open shots, that’s always the goal. So we executed tonight, guys were in the right spots, guys made unselfish plays to get other people the ball and that’s how we’ve got to continue to play.”

Morgan finished with 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting, including 4-of-8 from downtown, tying with junior wing Quenton DeCosey for the team lead. Coleman added nine points, taking all six of his shots from 3-point range and making three of them.

“A little nervous in the beginning, but after you run up and down a couple of times, you realize you’re just playing basketball, the game you’ve been playing your whole life,” Coleman said. “It wasn’t too hard to get out there and get settled in.”

Will Cummings added 11 to round out the four Owls in double figures; the senior point guard also had a career-high 10 assists against zero turnovers to help TU to a 19:7 assist-to-turnover ratio for the game.

Morgan was given the start in his first college game since January 2013, when he tore his ACL during his junior year at UMass; he was dismissed from the school that April and spent last year as a practice player at Temple before being given one final semester of eligibility by the NCAA just before the season began.

“He hasn’t played a couple of years, I wanted to just get him out there as quickly as possible, more that than anything else,” Dunphy said. “He deserves it…he’s been a great teammate to these guys, I’m very proud of him.”

“I knew the time was coming, it was just about being patient and having your teammates back with you and supporting you the whole time,” said Morgan, who didn’t know he was starting until just before the game. “It helped me, made it an easy road.”

Though Morgan would miss his first four shots in a Temple uniform before burying a long two-pointer seven minutes into the game, Coleman didn’t need quite so long to get going. With 30 seconds after the Clemson transfer entered the game, he knocked down a 3-pointer from the right corner to put the Owls up 18-14; another one on the next possession stretched the lead out to seven, and they would cruise into a 37-21 lead at the half.

“Just happy to be out there, I was pretty anxious,” Morgan said. “Just ready to get out there and play with the teammates, play with your guys, so it was a lot of emotion and my heart was pumping fast, just trying to compete and run up and down the floor.”

The lead would get to as large as 25 early in the second half after yet another 3-pointer by Morgan. Delaware would cut it to within 14 with under six minutes to play, but got no closer.

Also making his season debut was Delaware senior guard Kyle Anderson, the only returning starter from the Blue Hens’ CAA championship squad a year ago.

Anderson, who missed the first seven games of the season after offseason hand surgery, had a team-high 20 points. Maurice Jeffers had 11 points and 12 rebounds for his first career double-double, as the sophomore big man set career highs in both categories.

Temple now faces No. 10 Kansas at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday night, while Delaware faces a quick turnaround with a game at Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday at 2 PM.