Deuce Jones buries Temple with buzzer-beating three in Big 5 Classic
PHILADELPHIA — Temple and St. Joe’s spent the entirety of the Big 5 Classic third-place game locked in a rock fight Saturday night. After an abysmal offensive first half in which Temple shot just 30% from the field, it played better in the second half and traded blows with the Hawks and led by five with a little more than two minutes to play.
But it was St. Joe’s guard Deuce Jones II who threw the final punches.
Jones got an easy layup, made a triple, then converted another layup to tie the game at 67 with 33 seconds left. Owls guard Jordan Mason made two free throws with 15 seconds remaining before Jones delivered the final blow.
Temple’s defense looked like it was going to get a stop as St. Joe’s was out of sorts while the final seconds drained off the clock, but Jones got a contested look from just beyond the top of the key and buried the shot and the Owls’ hopes as the buzzer expired, sending Temple to a 70-69 loss at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
“I’m really proud of our effort and energy and fight in the second half,” Temple head coach Adam Fisher said. “We kind of went at our guys, which is a little uncharacteristic of me at halftime, and it just wasn’t us.”
But Temple is a 4-5 basketball team after nine games, and it is who the Owls are right now.
The game did not have to come down to Jones’ shot at the buzzer, but Temple’s first-half offense put the Owls in that position. Temple missed its first four shots, made just nine field goals and turned the ball over six times against St. Joe’s (5-3) defense in the first 20 minutes.
As has been the issue for much of the early part of the season, Temple’s offense grew stagnant in the halfcourt and took highly-contested threes or layups. The Owls’ first bucket came two minutes into the game courtesy of an open corner three from guard Gavin Griffiths.
Griffiths was Temple’s only source of offense from beyond the arc in the first half, as he made all three of its three-pointers. The rest of the Owls went a combined 0-for-14 from beyond the arc in the first half. Griffiths was a factor on both ends of the floor, finishing with 15 points on five three-pointers, along with three steals and five blocks.
While Temple’s offense struggled, its defense held the Hawks at bay for the first nine minutes of action. The Owls held a 12-10 lead with 11:53 left in the first half before St. Joe’s finally started to crack their defense. The Hawks rattled off a 12-0 run in four minutes to open up a double-digit lead. Temple called a timeout and punched right back with a nine-point run to pull back to 22-21 with five minutes to play in the first half.
That was the closest Temple got again in the first half, as the Hawks pushed back ahead by as many as seven and continued to hold the Owls at arm’s length.
Temple especially struggled to contain St. Joe’s in the paint throughout the first half. The Hawks grabbed 11 offensive rebounds in the first half and turned those into 10 second-chance points. They outscored the Owls 16-10 in the paint and made it difficult for Temple’s offense around the rim with five blocks.
St. Joe’s center Justice Ajogbar caused issues for Temple in the paint throughout the first half. The 6-foot-10 graduate big had six points, five rebounds and three blocks in the first half. He finished the game with 10 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double. Guard Derrian Ford was wide open for a corner three as the first half buzzer sounded, but he misfired on the shot and the Owls went to the locker room trailing 33-25.
The Hawks extended their lead to 37-28 and threatened to pull away in the opening minutes of the second half before the Owls turned up the heat. They went on a 12-0 run, spearheaded by seven points from Ford, to take a 40-37 lead, their first lead since it was 12-10 with 11:53 left in the first half.
“Just our effort [changed],” Ford said. “Higher effort on the defensive end. We can score the ball, but the biggest thing is just we gave up offensive rebounds and we just wanted to get stops because we know we can convert on offense.”
The Hawks finally found an answer on offense from beyond the arc, despite entering the game shooting just 25.6% from three. Guard Jaiden Glover-Toscano made a triple, then forward Anthony Finkley knocked down two straight threes to vault the Hawks back in front, 48-44.
Ford became the Owls’ go-to offensive source in the second half, and they turned to him again following the St. Joe’s run. Ford made a pair of free throws and a three-pointer to bring Temple’s deficit down to 52-51. Ford paced the Owls’ offense with 27 points on 7-of-15 shooting. He recorded 20 of his points in the second half.
The two teams continued to trade buckets and free throws before the Owls found the next spark of momentum. They used a seven-point spurt to go ahead 60-58 with 4:53 left in the game. The run was started with a short jumper from freshman forward Ayuba Bryant Jr., who played a critical role in the frontcourt.
Sophomore forward Babatunde Durodola was a non-factor Saturday night, picking up five fouls and just two points and two rebounds in just eight minutes, which forced Bryant into an increased role. The freshman from Belgium was ready for it, as he scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.
“It’s something we have talked about for two years,” Fisher said of Durodola. “It’s just he’s got to be smarter in the beginning of games. We’ve watched every foul since he’s been here and it’s gotta be smart, play hard and smart.”
Temple and St. Joe’s continued to exchange blows as neither could pull away in the waning minutes. Jones connected on a three, then an uncontested layup following a Temple miss, to tie the score at 67 with 29.9 seconds left in the game.
The Owls’ offense couldn’t find a good look on their ensuing offensive possession, but were bailed out when Jones fouled Mason going for a steal. Mason stepped up and made both free throws before Jones’ late-game heroics that sent Temple below .500 on the season.
“You look at six of his points, one’s a bank three, so you guard it pretty well and then the game winner,” Fisher said. “I was disappointed on the layup. I thought the layup before that we needed to do a better job of guarding him.”
It was yet another play the Owls will look back on when they realize things didn’t have to end the way they did Saturday night.
Listen to Saturday’s postgame interview with Adam Fisher and Derrian Ford here.
