Temple shoots past Saint Francis, 95-67

PHILADELPHIA – Temple head coach Adam Fisher said he wanted his team to shoot more three-pointers this season. The Owls launched the third fewest threes per game in the American Conference through 10 games, but their three-point percentage is top five in the league.

On Sunday, it helped Temple surge past Saint Francis.

Any time the Owls were in search of a pick-me-up, a three-pointer lifted their spirits. The Red Flash had no answer, as Temple’s 59.6% shooting overwhelmed them. The Owls hit a season-high 15 three-pointers en route to a 95-67 win at the Liacouras Center that pushed them to a 6-5 overall record and a 5-1 mark at home. 

“Obviously tonight, we made shots,” Fisher said. “I thought we really guarded in the first half, which has been a huge point of emphasis. Our first-shot defense was fantastic, eight offensive rebounds. When you watch the film, and we watched some of the clips at halftime, the coaches, some of them are going to be bad bounces. I think there were two or three air balls. So, you look at it like, ‘You gave up eight,’ and you’re like, ‘OK, maybe it was really closer to four or five.’ But proud of our guys.”

After three straight losses, Temple got back on track with what should be the easiest part of its schedule this season. They beat Georgian Court Tuesday, although they let the Division II team hang around for a little bit before pulling away for a 46-point blowout win. 

This time, the Owls stepped on St. Francis’ neck from the opening tip, extinguishing any hope for a program that is sadly dropping to the Division III level next season after an NCAA Tournament First Four loss last March. Threes from guards Derrian Ford and Aiden Tobiason began a half that saw the Owls connected on 10 three-pointers.

“I think that our guards did a really good job getting in the paint and playing off two feet,” said guard Gavin Griffiths. “When you get the looks I got today, it makes it really easy.”
Temple’s defense, which had struggled by giving up at least 70 points in seven of the last eight games, woke up. St. Francis (2-9) struggled to create any spark after guard Zion Russell hit a layup after Ford’s three. It began a three-minute scoring drought where Temple went on a 9-0 run.

The Owls never looked back, with the offense continuing to pour on points using Ford and Tobiason as the main catalysts. Both had 11 first-half points and got buckets on all three levels. Guard Jordan Mason was just as big a help. The Illinois-Chicago transfer had a season-high 11 assists on Tuesday and his success bled into Sunday.

He tacked on nine more against the Red Flash, with the offense mostly running through him. Mason consistently found an open player or made the extra pass that led to points, and forward Babatunde Durodola took that mantle when Mason wasn’t on the court. Durodola was removed from the starting lineup against Georgian Court in favor of forward Jamai Felt after fouling out in back-to-back games in an effort to take pressure off of him.

Fisher’s decision worked, as the 6-foot-8 sophomore was back to his early-season self. He facilitated open looks from the post, finishing with four points and two assists in 15 minutes.

“It’s credit to those guys. They kind of shared the five,” Fisher said. “I thought our standard of defense stayed the same when we subbed.”

Griffiths began to get involved after he went scoreless for eight minutes. He drilled a three-pointer that pushed Temple’s lead to 15. Two minutes later, he scored five straight points and then hit another three-pointer for good measure two minutes before halftime. Tobiason notched another three and Temple went into halftime up 47-24 after making 10 of its last 12 first-half shots.

Temple has shown the ability to get hot at points this season. It kept pace with Villanova for much of the first half on Dec. 1 and strung together a 12-0 run and had a chance to win against Saint Joseph’s in the third place game of the Big 5 Classic last weekend.

The Owls have also shown that they can go flat in the blink of an eye, and that happened to start the second half. The Red Flash began chipping away at their deficit behind 19-second half points from guard Skylar Wicks, who played in the American at UTSA last season. Temple found its lead cut to just 15 points eight minutes into the second half, but it never got any closer than that.

Temple’s offense snapped back together, countering every punch St. Francis threw. The defense lacked and the Owls’ rebounding effort vanished, but the scoring touch of Ford, Tobiason, Mason and Griffiths pushed them forward. Ford led the way with 24 points, followed by Tobiason, who had 19.

“We watch so much film, so we never want to lower our standards for any part of the game,” Ford said, “playing for a full 40 minutes. Even what you said about moving the ball, [that] was one emphasis, because we are so good when we move the ball.”

With back-to-back wins heading into its final two nonconference matchups, Temple will travel to play at Davidson (8-2) in what will be just the Owls’ second true road game this season Thursday night at 7 p.m.