City of Basketball Love

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)

--

Temple opened up conference play with a bang in a 77-70 victory over 22nd ranked Cincinnati. The win improves Temple to 1-3 against the Top-25 on the season.

At first…

It looked like it was going to be a one-sided game in favor of Cincinnati, as they used a 9-2 run to race out to a 16-9 lead early on in the first half, but Temple proved resilient making it a back-and-forth game all the way through.

Turning point…

With the score tied at 65 in the final three minutes of the game, Quenton DeCosey drew a foul and connected on both free throws to give the Owls a 67-65 lead. Following a DeCosey steal on the very next play, Daniel Dingle connected on a three-pointer to stretch the Temple lead to five, and it was easy sailing the rest of the way through.

Shining stars…

For Temple, Dingle finished with a career-high 14 points and five rebounds. Every time Temple was in need of a big basket, it seemed that Dingle was the one connecting on the shot, sinking two key 3-pointers late in the second half. DeCosey finished with 19 points, leading all Temple scorers and continuing upon his impressive senior campaign. Devin Coleman also registered 14 points, including 4-7 from three-point range, it was the senior's first time in double digits for the Owls since the third game of the season.

Cincinnati’s Troy Caupain led his team with 19 points and seven assists, but it just was not enough. He was helped by big man Octavius Ellis who chimed in 12 points and seven rebounds off of the bench.

Noteworthy numbers…

After entering the game shooting just 30.8 percent from the three-point line, Temple connected on 10 of their 22 attempts from deep, shooting 45 percent from behind the arc.

Up next…

Temple (6-5) vs Houston (10-2) (1/2, 12 p.m.)

#22 Cincinnati (10-4) vs Tulsa (8-4) (1/2, 4 p.m.)