Rice beats Temple, 80-74, putting Owls one step closer to missing conference tournament
PHILADELPHIA – Temple hasn’t been able to execute in the second half during what has become a six-game losing streak, and its matchup against Rice Sunday afternoon was no different.
The Owls deteriorated on both ends of the floor in the final 20 minutes and fell, 80-74.
Temple shot 44.4% in the half, but only got consistent contributions from guards Aiden Tobiason and Derrian Ford. They scored 14 and 13 second-half points, respectively, and each finished with 20. The rest of the team combined for 11 second-half points.
The bigger problem was that the Owls’ defense. It fell apart.
Rice shot 55.6% from the field in the second half with guards Trae Broadnax (15 points), Jalen Smith (15) and Nick Anderson (21) combining for 37 of Rice’s 45 second-half points. Temple never found an answer, especially around the rim, and also surrendered 18 points to Rice bigs Stephen Giwa, Jimmy Oladokun and Andrew Akuchie.
Temple, which fell to 15-14 and 7-9 American Conference, is still trying to claim its spot in the conference tournament. After being in a second-place tie just 22 days ago, the Owls have gone from the team that was looking at a chance at a double bye to the team that might miss out on the tournament altogether. Temple is now tied with Memphis for ninth place, but the Tigers would hold a tiebreaker since they beat Temple back in January.
If Rice and East Carolina lose one of their last two games, Temple will get to Birmingham even if it loses to Tulane Thursday at home and at Tulsa next Sunday.
But that’s a very disappointing place to be considering where the Owls were less than a month ago.
“We gotta stick together,” said third-year head coach Adam Fisher. “We know how miserable these last three weeks have been. We’ve tried the yelling, screaming. We’ve tried the different motivation. It’s got to be, ‘Hey, we just got to come together and figure it out.’ This group’s got to take tomorrow and go from there and then it’s the next day and that’s it. It’s a single-day approach.”
Temple was careless with the ball to start the game, committing four turnovers in the first five minutes. Guard Cam Carroll picked the ball during back-to-back possessions, which Anderson converted into five-straight points for an 11-8 Rice lead.
Temple cleaned up its mistakes and gave up the ball just six more times the rest of the way. Rice took full advantage though, scoring 18 points off the errors in the game.
Guard Masiah Gilyard provided Temple’s first spark of the game. He snatched an offensive rebound and passed the ball to guard Gavin Griffiths for a triple. Gilyard then stole the ball and dished it to Griffiths again for a layup for a 15-11 lead eight minutes in.
Gilyard was pivotal in helping space the floor. He went after seemingly every rebound and loose ball with full intensity, forcing Rice to dedicate some of its focus on him. Gilyard finished the day with 11 points, six rebounds and two assists.
While Gilyard gave his team a boost on Senior Day, Anderson was doing the same thing for Rice. He posted 11 first-half points to lead all scorers while adding four rebounds and two assists.
Rice’s offense consisted of several pick-and-rolls. Temple held it from getting too far out of control with constant communication and help defense, but Rice beat the Owls’ defense to the rim or used its length to shoot over Temple for 20 first-half paint points.
Giwa and Oladokun established themselves as offensive threats early but got into foul trouble quickly. They combined for 10 first-half points, but both only saw nine minutes of action with two fouls each. Giwa finished with eight points on 4-for-4 shooting and grabbed four rebounds. Oladokun had four points, one rebound and one assist before fouling out with eight minutes left in the game.
Temple gave Rice a hard time in the pick-and-rolls in the first half, but Rice didn’t receive much opposition on the defensive end in the second half.
Rice went 10-for-13 from the floor in a nine-minute span to balloon its lead to 61-55. It created looks everywhere on the court, scoring at all three levels, while Temple’s defensive intensity crumbled.
The Owls lost consistent communication and often allowed wide-open scoring opportunities, seemingly thinking someone else was going to step in on help defense.
“It’s something we’ve worked on and talked about, having a low man,” Fisher said. “And low man wasn’t there. We addressed it at multiple timeouts. We got to be better.”
Even when Temple did play a strong defensive possession, Rice’s shooters were sharp. Temple almost forced multiple shot-clock violations, but Rice got shots up that usually fell. Meanwhile, Temple endured multiple scoring droughts, either by not converting after breaking Rice’s occasional full-court pressure or not being able to get past the half-court defense.
Both sides struggled building momentum as the game constantly stopped for foul shots. Temple went 19-for-26 from the stripe in the frame while Rice made 14-of-19. Ford scored five straight points at the free throw line to cut the deficit to 63-61 with seven minutes and 36 seconds remaining.
Each team made five more field goals, but Rice added seven free throws compared to Temple’s one the rest of the way.
“Just trying to execute from what the coaching staff tells me,” Ford said of his approach. “My teammates trust me getting to the line. So, just trying to get to the line as much as possible, because I feel like we’re a great free-throw team and we work on it a lot, so just just trying to get to the line and draw fouls.”
Temple stays at The Liacouras Center to face Tulane (17-12, 8-8) Thursday at 7 p.m. If the Owls beat the Green Wave, they get to keep playing in Birmingham.
If they lose their last two, they’ll need help.
