Sophomore forward Anthony Lee returned to Temple’s (8-2) starting lineup after missing Monday’s game due to illness, but it was Canisius’ night, as the Golden Griffins (8-2) hit 10 3-pointers to put a dagger in the Owls and hand Temple its second loss of the season by a score of 72-62.
“Can’t say it’s overly surprising the way we’ve been playing,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said after the game. “We’ve been escaping with some wins, but we haven’t been playing well. I thought we played a decent first half to be honest with you.”
While Canisius was able to knock down clutch three after clutch three, shooting a combined 10-21 as a team from beyond the arc, Temple went ice cold from deep and hit just 4-27 from deep
“We’ll look at it obviously on the film and we’ll see some shots that we rushed and threes that we had opportunities and we didn’t take advantage of,” Dunphy said. “We got out of character a little bit and it cost us.”
Billy Baron, Isaac Sosa, Reggie Groves, Harold Washington and Alshwan Hymes combined for 10 3-pointers on the night, 7 of which came after halftime, making all of the difference in this basketball game
Lee missed Monday night’s game vs. Alcorn State with an illness and scored 10 points and 7 rebounds on the night, but his presence in the lineup was not enough to stop the Golden Griffins’ perimeter attack.
The Owls looked much more energized and fresh in the first half compared to Monday’s contest and Temple looked to find a solid rhythm, something that has been difficult for the Owls to establish for much of the season.
Senior guard Khalif Wyatt found open lanes in Canisius’ defense and settled for high percentage shots in the paint to help build a 28-16 first-half lead. But the Golden Griffins stormed back, encompassing on a 9-2 run to climb back in the game behind guards Baron and Washington.
Baron, who transferred from Rhode Island, entered Wednesday night’s game averaging 15.9 points per game, but dropped a game-high 19 points and did a masterful job of setting up the offense for the Golden Griffins.
“I thought Baron was tremendous today controlling the pace of the game, the tempo of the game,” Dunphy said. “He knew what his team needed to get him a victory.”
Wyatt converted on a layup at the end of the first half to give the Owls a 36-28 advantage at half time, but Canisius stormed back in the second half thanks to the previously mentioned deadly attack from downtown.
Graduate student Jake O’Brien played a key role for the second straight game, scoring nine first-half points, including the Owls only two 3-pointers of the first half. O’Brien finished with a season-high 14 points, but was nowhere to be found during Canisius’ second-half run.
As a team, Temple shot 14-31 from the floor in the first half, but only a combined 8-32 in the second half, settling for far too many contested 3-point shots throughout the game
“I think we have some good jump shooters who got a lot of confidence and I mean everybody loves the (3-point shot) if it’s going in and everybody hates it if it’s not going in,” Wyatt said. “We just gotta do what we do well and shots will start falling and we’ll be fine.”
You could sense that the game started to fall in the favor of the Golden Griffins almost halfway through the second half. At the 11:16 mark, Groves stole the ball from Will Cummingsand dished it to Hymes, who hit his only trifecta of the game to give Canisius a 48-47 lead.
“We got a good lead early, they didn’t quit, they kept playing,” Wyatt told the media following Temple’s second loss of the season. ”We had a good lead in the second half, but they put together a nice little run, started making shots. (Canisius) just made shots in the second half and we didn’t. That’s what it came down to”
The Golden Griffins squandered a lead with 5:59 seconds left following a Lee dunk off a nice pass from Quenton DeCosey, but Canisius didn’t relinquish the advantage after that.
“I think they pretty much did a better job than us on defense as far as making us take threes, as far as not letting us get inside and stuff like that,” Cummings, who scored a career-high 10 points on the night, said. “I think that’s what it pretty much came down to as them playing harder on the defensive end getting stops.”
Canisius went 16-18 from the charity strike, but the Owls could not capitalize when given the free shot, shooting just 14-21 from the stripe.
Temple senior Scootie Randall’s production has dipped as of late and that continued tonight vs. the Golden Griffins as he was 3-16 from the field, including a staggering 1-12 from deep for just 7 points.
“There were a couple of those that he absolutely rushed,” Dunphy said. “But if you’re not making shots, then find other ways to help your team and that’s what (Scootie) needs to do.”
Temple will now have Thursday and Friday off before facing No. 4 ranked Syracuse on Saturday for a noon tipoff at Madison Square Garden.
Wyatt shut down any possibility of Temple overlooking Canisius and instead looking to the Orange on Saturday.
“We’re not where we need to be right now,” he said. “We’ll just keep practicing and keep going at it game by game and just try and get better as a team as the season goes along.
“I just think that Canisius came in here ready to play. I think we had some good stretches throughout the game but towards the end they just made more shots than us, got more stops that us.”
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