Temple University Athletics
Temple University
2-3
Georgia
1-3
Late Three by Cummings Lifts Men's Basketball to an 83-81 Win Over Georgia in the Charleston Classic
11.22.13 | Men's Basketball
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CHARLESTON, SC - Will Cummings drained a three-pointer with seven seconds remaining to lift Temple men's basketball to an 83-81 win over Georgia (1-3) in the Charleston Classic on Friday night. The Owls (2-3) now advance to face UAB in the fifth-place game on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 6:30 p.m (ESPN3).
The Owls had surrendered the lead for just nine seconds before the game-winner by Cummings, but had allowed the Bulldogs back into the game after holding a 15-point lead early in the second half.
Dalton Pepper scored a career-high 22 points and dished a career-high five assists to lead Temple. He hit five three-pointers, all in the first half, and the Owls finished with 11 treys as a team.
Cummings finished with 17 points including 6-of-8 at the line. Quenton DeCosey scored 15 points, just one shy of his career-high, and Daniel Dingle finished with a career-high 12 points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field including 2-of-2 behind the arc.
Jimmy McDonnell, who made his first career start in place of freshman Mark WIlliams, set career highs in minutes (17) and rebounds (4).
Kenny Gaines led Georgia with 21 points, and Charles Mann scored 19 including the go-ahead layup with 18 seconds left.
Temple got off to a rough start after an opening three-pointer for DeCosey, going scoreless from the field for the next five minutes as the Bulldogs opened up a 15-5 lead by the 13-minute mark.
After the Owls called a timeout, things started coming together in a big way, as Temple used a 13-0 run over the next three minutes and 20 seconds to take an 18-15 lead. The run included two of Pepper's three-pointers, and he would go on to sink three more treys in an impressive first-half performance.
Pepper wasn't the only one to get hot from behind the arc in the first half. Temple hit nine three-pointers as a team, with two from DeCosey and one apiece from Josh Brown and Dingle.
The Bulldogs tied the score at 21-21 soon after the Owls' first run of the half, but a left-handed layup by Dingle with 7:21 remaining started another big run. Pepper hit his fourth and fifth treys in a 10-0 run that gave Temple its first double-digit lead, 31-21 at 5:44.
Georgia cut the margin to single digits twice before Brown's three-pointer at 3:08 gave the Owls their largest lead to that point, 36-24, and they would not lead by fewer than 10 points again in the half. Just before the buzzer, Williams drove in for a layup to put Temple ahead by 13 at the break, 45-32.
Temple hit nearly 61 percent from the field in the first half (17-of-28), and a blistering 64.3 percent from behind the arc (9-of-14).
After hitting 16 of their final 21 shots from the field in the first half, the Owls never quite regained that momentum in the second. It was well over four minutes into the half before Temple's first field goal, a rebound and putback by Pepper at 15:34, putting Temple back ahead by nine after Georgia had cut the margin to five.
The offensive struggles continued for the Owls, as they hit just one of their first 12 attempts from the field. Georgia cut the margin to two in that stretch, 53-51 in the first eight minutes. Temple used a quick, 7-0 run to regain a nine-point advantage, but it would be their largest the rest of the way.
Georgia hit 16 of its first 17 attempts from the free throw line and finished 22-of-26 overall, keeping the Bulldogs in easy striking distance down the stretch. Temple did well to force turnovers on Georgia, scoring nine points off six miscues for the Bulldogs in the second half.
Near the four-minute mark, the game saw its first two ties since early in the first half. Pepper and Cummings both made plays to put the Owls back in the lead, but a fast-break dunk by Gaines cut the margin to 80-79 with 56 seconds left.
After a miss by Temple, Mann went back down to make the go-ahead layup for the Bulldogs. The Owls called timeout and then put the ball in the hands of Cummings, who made the game-winning three-pointer. Georgia had time on the other end and drew up a play on a timeout, but could get nothing to go.
