Temple Falls At Home To St. Bonaventure, 81-78

Saturday, January 19

Liacouras Center

1:00 PM

Temple University

12-5 (2-2 A-10)

St. Bonaventure

8-9 (1-3 A-10)

St. Bonaventure

Temple

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Temple Falls At Home To St. Bonaventure, 81-78

1.19.13 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

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PHILADELPHIA— Despite a game-high 31-point performance from senior Khalif Wyatt, the Temple Owls fell to the St. Bonaventure Bonnies, 81-78, Saturday at The Liacouras Center. With the loss, Temple falls to 12-5 overall and 2-2 in Atlantic 10 Conference play. St. Bonaventure, who snapped a six-game losing streak overall and won for the first time at Temple in 31 meetings, is now 9-9 overall and 1-3 in conference games.

In what was his most efficient performance of the season, Wyatt went 10-of-13 from the field and hit all eight of his free throw attempts.
Graduate student Jake O'Brien knocked down a season-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including his most threes in a game since Dec. 2010. Fellow graduate student T.J. DiLeo set new career-highs with 11 points and four assists. As a team, the Owls drained a season-high 12 three-pointers and had 17 assists on 28 baskets.

St. Bonaventure, who won the 2012 A10 Tournament, played like champions. All five Bonnies starters scored in double figures led by Matthew Wright's 22 points. SBU hit big three and big three, and connected on 11 of 18 shots from behind the arc. Wright was a perfect four-of-four from long range while making eight of 11 shots overall.

SBU took control from the opening tap, storming out to a 10-2 lead in the first four minutes. Five straight points by O'Brien capped an 11-2 run to give the Owls a brief 15-14 advantage. The teams traded baskets before the visitors went on a 12-5 spree capped by a Demetrius Conger (15 pts) tip-in that made it 29-23.

Temple then ran off 11 unanswered points with Scootie Randall tallying the final five to give the Owls their largest lead, 34-29, with 2:34 remaining in the half.

The Bonnies responded by scoring 11 of the final 13 points to take a 40-36 lead at the break.

SBU picked up right where they left off in the second half. Eric Mosley drained one of his three treys to open the stanza, propelling the visitors to a 13-5 run and their largest lead, 53-41 with 15 minutes remaining.

Temple had trouble cutting into the deficit as the Bonnies, who shot 52.5 percent in the second half (62.5% from three), continued to make big shots.

Following a Wright three-pointer that made it, 63-53, Temple finally looked ready to take control. Scootie Randall (10 pts) and Wyatt drained threes to cut it to four. Then three minutes later Wyatt ran off five straight to make it 69-68 SBU with 3:36 to play.

Wright then made a great pass to an open Conger to a three-pointer and on the ensuing possession Wyatt was called for his fifth foul, a charge while driving the lane.

Chris Johnson (10 pts) then connected on a three-pointer and Youssou Ndoye (12 pts) added two free throws and all of the sudden the one-point deficit was nine, 77-68, and the Owls' leader was sidelined for the remainder of the game.

DiLeo tried to rally the Cherry and White, draining a three and adding a driving lay-up to cut the margin to 77-73 with 27 second left. Mosley and Johnson, however, closed out the win by hitting four straight free throws.

The Owls return to action on Wednesday evening for a 7:00 p.m. Philadelphia Big 5 tilt at the Liacouras Center, where they will host the Penn Quakers. Legendary sports information director Al Shrier will be honored during the game for his 60 years of working at Temple University.