City of Basketball Love

David Gough (@DG0UGH)
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Last season, Temple welcomed nationally ranked Southern Methodist into Philadelphia on a snowy Sunday afternoon with its first loss of the season.

On Thursday night, another snowy day, the Owls again welcomed the nationally ranked Mustangs.

This time, however, Temple could not do the same as No. 25 SMU defeated the Owls 66-50 in a rather empty Liacouras Center.

Both teams each committed 16 turnovers in the game, though the second half saw a little bit better ball handling.

Temple (13-12, 4-8) committed 11 of its 16 turnovers in the first half.

On average, the Owls came into the game turning the ball just under 12 times per contest, a number that has risen because of the team’s inability to keep the turnovers below 10 in the last seven games.

“There were a couple plays that we made that we just don’t typically make and we did today. I’m sure the pressure helped in their turning us over a little bit,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said.

Temple’s turnovers led to 17 points for the Mustangs (21-4, 11-1) who were ranked Monday for the first time this season.

Still, SMU committed 16 of its own. It was Temple’s lack of shooting success that led to its downfall.

The Owls shot 17-of-55 for the game (30.9 percent). It is their third worst percentage this season and worst since they shot 26.7 percent at home against Cincinnati on December 28 in a 56-50 loss.

Their first-half shooting is ultimately what put them in a hole, as they only scored 18 points.

Temple went 6-of-25 (24 percent) from the field before it headed into the locker room. After a Quinton Rose dunk to retake the lead at 14-12 with 10:44 remaining, it wouldn’t be until Rose tipped in his own miss nearly nine-and-a-half minutes later to end Temple’s field goal drought.

“We had missed shots that were pretty clean [looks] and also had a couple of forced shots. We can’t get into that kind of out of character stuff,” Dunphy said.

In that span, the Mustangs took hold of the game using a 16-4 run to close out the first half. SMU forward Semi Ojeleye started things with a dunk in which Temple senior Mark Williams committed a flagrant 1. Ojeleye hit the two free throws he was awarded and the Mustangs stayed on top from there.

The Duke transfer scored a career-high 30 points scoring ten from the free throw line and shooting 8-of-16 from the field. The redshirt junior also contributed 10 rebounds as he proved to be hard to stop all night.

“His ability to shoot and play inside as well, he’s a tough guy because of that. He shot the ball really well today,” Temple junior Obi Enechionyia said.

Enechionyia’s scoring struggles continued on Thursday night. After a hot start to the season in which he scored no lower than 16 points in Temple’s first eight games, the go-to scorer role has belonged to Shizz Alston Jr.

The 6-foot-10 junior forward shot 3-of-11 (27.2 percent) in Thursday’s loss, his worst shooting percentage since a loss at Connecticut on January 11 when he shot 17.6 percent.

He wasn’t the only top leading scorer to struggle for the Owls on Thursday.

Alston, Temple’s current leading scorer with 14 points per game, led the team with 13 points but only went 4-of-15 from the field (26.6 percent).

Senior Dan Dingle connected on just three shots on ten attempts for ten points.

It’s difficult to win when your three best scorers combine to shoot just 10-of-36 in a game (27.8 percent).

“We need Obi, Dan, and Shizz. Their shooting percentage tonight, we need better than that. All three of those guys are leading scorers. We need to shoot it better,” Dunphy said.

The biggest bright spot for Temple in the loss was Rose. He finished with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting off the bench.

The freshman guard isn’t relied on too often -- he averages just over 22 minutes a game -- but he continues to make the best of his time.

In 25 career games, Rose has reached double digits in scoring in 13 of them by using his ability to force turnovers and run the floor.

“That length and quickness and speed, all of that. [Rose] is going to be a very good basketball player and we’re going to have to live with some of the things he’s doing right now, but he’s a really good basketball player,” Dunphy said.

The Owls will try to get back into the win column this Sunday as they travel to Memphis.