Shorthanded Owls grab 68-63 road win at Davidson
With a significantly shorthanded lineup, Temple turned in its most impressive win of the season Thursday night.
While starting guard Gavin Griffiths and key reserves AJ Smith and Masiah Gilyard sat out with injuries, the Owls leaned on a game-high 23 points from Derrian Ford and 19 from Aiden Tobiason to hold off the Wildcats 68-63 at Belk Arena. It was Temple’s third consecutive win and first true road victory of the season.
The Owls, who improved to 7-5, had put a stop to a three-game losing streak over the last week with wins over Division II Georgian Court and a struggling St. Francis program that’s headed to the Division III level next season. Thursday night, Temple beat a Davidson team that had gotten off to its first 8-2 start in seven years, and the Owls did it without their third-leading scorer in Griffiths and their two most valuable reserve guards in Smith and Gilyard.
Smith, who is averaging 7.8 points and 1.4 rebounds this season, missed his fourth game with a shoulder injury, and Griffiths and Gilyard both missed the game with what the team referred to as lower-body injuries they sustained in the second half of the win over St. Francis.
Temple only trailed once, at 2-0 early on, and led by 13 at halftime and by as many as 16 points at 42-26 at the 16:28 mark of the second half. The Owls nearly coughed up an 11-point lead inside the game’s last three-and-a-half minutes as Davidson unwrapped a 10-1 run that got the Wildcats within two at 60-58 on a layup from guard Parker Friedrichsen with 52 seconds left.
Coming out of a timeout, Tobiason scored on a layup 17 seconds later courtesy of an assist from forward Babatunde Durodola, and six made free throws down the stretch – two from Ford and four from point guard Jordan Mason – helped seal the win.
On a night in which it shot just 39.1% from the floor, got outrebounded by 44-30 and assisted on just five of its 18 field goals, Temple powered through by committing just six turnovers and shooting 26-for-33 from the free-throw line. Tobiason scored 11 of his 19 points inside the game’s final nine minutes and hit four of his last five shots to close things out. Mason, who finished with 14 points, went 8-for-9 from the foul line, and Ford went 9-for-10 from the line and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
With the 6-foot-7 Griffiths and his 10.9 points per game out of the lineup, Temple head coach Adam Fisher started 6-9 freshman forward Ayuba Bryant, who went scoreless in 16 minutes but did contribute four rebounds. The Owls got a lift off the bench from freshman guard Cam Wallace, who chipped in nine points, two rebounds and a steal in 23 minutes.
Guard Roberts Blums led Davidson with 14 points and Nick Coval added 10. Temple held the Wildcats to 38.7% shooting (24-for-62) from the floor and just 5-for-22 from three.
The Owls will host Princeton Monday at the Liacouras Center in their final nonconference game of the season before American Conference play begins at Charlotte Dec. 30.
