Temple overcame a slow start to win its home opener, 77-63, over Rice Saturday night at the Liacouras Center.
From top to bottom, Temple’s roster is far more talented, but in college basketball anything can happen on any given night.
After an ultra-competitive first half, Rice – like Temple known as the Owls – struggled in all phases of the game starting at the 10-minute mark of the second frame.
Temple stormed out of the gates and dominated the offensive boards early thanks to a high-volume of energy from Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson and took a commanding 16-5 lead with 12:30 left in the first half. Hollis-Jefferson was all over the place and the starting five for Temple was full of energy. Anthony Lee, who was the biggest player on either team tonight standing at 6-foot-9, was being utilized perfectly on offense getting the ball in perfect spots thanks mostly to Khalif Wyatt, who made multiple no look passes to the sophomore center in the paint.
It looked like Temple (2-0), which opened with a road win at Kent State last week, was well on their way to a second straight easy win with an unblemished record, but the Owls went ice cold and their shooting game was inept.
“I think we have a pretty decent shooting team, so I’ll take those shots any time but we just didn’t knock them down,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said.
Talent off the bench, which looked to be a huge advantage for Temple, and was against Kent State on Tuesday, was nowhere to be found in the first half. No players outside of the starting five of Will Cummings, Wyatt, Scootie Randall, Hollis-Jefferson and Anthony Lee recorded a single point in the first half and Temple had just five total bench points in the game.
Solid guard play from Rice kept there under matched squad close and the Owls played the role of pests. Senior guard Tamir Jackson led Rice with a team-high 17 points and 11 rebounds. Freshman guard and Philadelphia native Keith Washington chipped in with 12 points of his own.
“I thought our perimeter defense was not as good as it needed to be,” Dunphy said. “I thought we gave up some go-bys, resulted in some layups and fouls and three point opportunities for [Rice].”
Temple came out in the second half still having to put up a valiant fight against Rice, but the Cherry and White stepped up their defensive pressure and utilized their size advantage on the glass to slowly but surely, pull away from Rice.
Temple outrebounded an undermanned Rice team 43-30, including a 16-4 advantage on offense.
Randall and Lee recorded their first career double-doubles. Lee scored 16 points, pulling down 13 rebounds and Randall scored 16 points and recorded 12 rebounds.
“Anthony [Lee] was terrific tonight in so many ways,” Dunphy said. “I thought he did a very good job on the offensive end. He came up with 13 rebounds he’s really starting to understand that’s a great strength of his.”
Randall had some high praise for Lee as well.
“He took a summer off and worked out so I think it’s starting to benefit and its starting to show as you can see he works hard,” Lee said. “He really works hard, he takes pride in what he do, he love to be out there and I think he’s coming along well.”
The Owls seniors paved the way to victory tonight over Rice. Along with Randall, Wyatt scored 17 points, dished out 6 assists and had 2 steals. Hollis-Jefferson also recorded team high 18 points along with 6 rebounds.
“I thought we did some good things but I would suggest it wasn’t a work of art by any stretch.” Dunphy said.
–
-Wyatt’s hamstring: Wyatt suffered a hamstring injury during the first half of the Kent State game on Tuesday, but started Saturday and contributed. Wyatt’s admitted his hamstring is not 100 percent, but is getting better.
“It’s good, it’s not 100 percent but it’s good,” he said. “I mean I was out there so I just tried to play through it. Just try to stay hydrated, stay loose, keep it heated and just not think about it. We gotta day off (Sunday) so I have a day to rest it and get back it it on Monday.”
–
-Sound off: What are your thoughts on Temple after their 2-0 start?
–
Postgame video
Fran Dunphy
Khalif Wyatt & Scootie Randall
No comments:
Post a Comment