Seniors to be Honored Thursday as Men's Basketball Hosts Memphis in Home Finale

PHILADELPHIA - The final regular season home game has arrived for Temple men's basketball, and the program will honor four senior student-athletes and five four-year student managers as part of Senior Night when the Owls (18-10, 12-4) host Memphis (16-13, 7-9) on Thursday, March 3 at 7 p.m. (ESPNU/1210 AM WPHT).

Headlines
• Temple is tied with SMU at the top of the American Athletic Conference standings with a record of 12-4, and holds the tiebreaker with the Mustangs as well as with third-place Cincinnati.
• Four seniors along with five four-year student managers will be honored for Senior Night on Thursday prior to tip-off against Memphis. Seniors Quenton DeCosey and Devontae Watson are four-year letterwinners for Temple, while Jaylen Bond and Devin Coleman are both in their second season after transferring.
• The Owls are coming off a nail-biter of a win, 63-61 against UCF on Feb. 27. DeCosey drained a 15-foot jumper with three seconds remaining to break a tie and lift the Owls to victory.
• Temple's win vs. UCF was its 10th home win of the season, a feat the Owls have now achieved in eight of the last nine seasons.
• Overall, the Owls have won 10 of their last 13 games including a streak of five straight, and they have a 7-2 record against the next five teams in the conference standings.
• Sophomore Obi Enechionyia is averaging 15.8 ppg over the last 10 contests. Enechionyia hit 6-of-9 from long range en route to a career-high 26 points in a win at Houston on Feb. 21, and was also the Owls' leading scorer at Tulsa with 17 points. He led Temple for a third game in a row vs. UCF on Feb. 27 with 18 points.
• The Owls trailed by 10 in the second half at Houston before closing the game with an 8-2 run, capped by two free throws from Josh Brown to get the win and avenge a home loss to the Cougars on Jan. 2.
• With 7.9 rebounds per game, senior Jaylen Bond leads the team and ranks eighth in the conference.
• When Temple edged UCF on the road on Feb. 6, 62-60, the Owls gave 10th-year head coach Fran Dunphy his 517th career victory to make him the all-time winningest coach in Philadelphia Big 5 history.
• DeCosey is Temple's leading scorer this season with 15.9 points per game, ranking third in the conference, and has scored in double figures in 25 of 28 contests. He has scored 1,431 points to rank 25th all-time in program history. When he scores at least 15 points, the Owls are 13-1 this season.
• With a win vs. #8 SMU on Jan. 24, Temple has now taken down a Top 10 team in seven of the last eight seasons.
• With 8.0 made three-pointers per game, Temple leads all teams in the American Athletic Conference.
• As a team, the Owls lead the nation in fewest turnovers per game at 9.1. They have recorded single digit turnovers in 17 of 28 games, tallying as few as five (vs. Delaware on Nov. 29 and at USF on Jan. 31).
• The Owls have three regular-season wins over Top 25 teams, the most since 1999-00. This season also marks the first since 1998 that the Owls have beaten two Top 25 opponents on the road. Temple has beaten at least one ranked opponent for nine straight seasons.
• Memphis is coming off a 92-82 win vs. Tulsa on Feb. 28 after losing its two previous games to USF and SMU. The Tigers won five in a row early in the season, but have since won or lost no more than two in a row.
• Freshman guard Dedric Lawson and senior forward Shaq Goodwin lead Memphis with 15.5 and 15.1 ppg, respectively. The two are also the team's rebouding leaders with 9.3 and 8.1 rpg, respectively.

Temple vs. Memphis
• Temple and Memphis are meeting for the 16th time and for the sixth time in the last 14 years.
• The previous game this season was a nail-biter, with the Tigers edging the Owls 67-65 in Memphis on Jan. 13.
• Last year, the teams met in the 2015 American Athletic Conference Tournament Quarterfinals on March 13, with Temple winning 80-75 to advance. The win was the 500th career victory for head coach Fran Dunphy.
• Memphis was one of two conference teams the Owls met just once in the 2014-15 regular season. Temple won that meeting at Memphis on a Josh Brown buzzer-beater by a score of 61-60 on Feb. 7.
• The Tigers won both meetings in the inaugural season of the American Athletic Conference in 2013-14, getting a 79-69 win in Philadelphia on Jan. 11 and edging the Owls 82-79 in overtime on Feb. 22 in Memphis.
• Memphis had won four straight prior to the 2014-15 season, including a 78-77 victory in the NIT Semifinals at Madison Square Garden on March 26, 2002.

Home Sweet Home
The Liacouras Center has proven to be a tremendous home court advantage. Since the arena opened its doors in 1997, the Owls have posted a 196-60 (.766) all-time record, and set the record for wins in a single season with 16 in 2014-15.

This season, the Owls have now reached the 10-win mark for an eighth time in the last nine years. Temple is 102-24 (.810) at home since the start of the 2007-08 campaign. To the right is a list of 10-win seasons in the building (bold under Dunphy).

In Good Hands
Junior point guard Josh Brown leads the American Athletic Conference in minutes played at 35.7 minutes per game, and it's not hard to see why. Brown has proven that the Owls' are in good hands, literally, when he has the ball. Over the past seven games, Brown has dished 36 assists while turning the ball over just five times. He recorded zero turnovers in three of those contests, and recently tied his career high with nine assists in a win vs. UCF on Feb. 27. Brown's 4.7 assists per game this season rank fourth in the league, while his assist to turnover ratio of 3.6 is tops in the conference and 12th in NCAA Division I.

Thank You Seniors
Four players and five four-year student managers will be honored on Thursday prior to tip-off as part of Senior Night. The Owls' four senior student-athletes are Jaylen Bond, Devin Coleman, Quenton DeCosey and Devontae Watson. DeCosey and Watson have played their entire careers for Temple, while Bond and Coleman joined the team after transferring. The Owls will also be honoring five four-year student managers - Kelsey Boyd, Josh Fisher, Brandon Johnson, Wasay Khan, and Tim Wilde.

Thriving in Thrillers
Temple is 9-4 this season in games decided by five points or fewer, and has found plenty of success in close games lately. Of the Owls' last six wins, five have been by a margin of five or less including two by a margin of just two points. In similar games last season, Temple was just 5-3 overall.

The Force is With Obi
Sophomore forward Obi Enechionyia has come on strong in the Owls' last 10 games. After averaging just 8.5 ppg in his first 17 games played this season, Enechionyia has put up 15.8 ppg over his last 10 contests to rank second on the team. He has scored in double figures in all but one of those games, including a career-high 26-point performance in a win at Houston on Feb. 21. From long range, Enechionyia has been outstanding in this stretch, hitting 28-of-60 (46.7 percent), and his overall percentage is .472 (60-of-127). He has led or tied for the team lead in scoring in five of the 10 games, including the last three straight (26 points at Houston, 17 points at Tulsa and 18 points vs. UCF).

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Seniors to be Honored Thursday as Men's Basketball Hosts Memphis in Home Finale

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Players Mentioned

Jaylen Bond

Josh Brown

Devin Coleman

Quenton DeCosey

Obi Enechionyia

Devontae Watson

Temple University Athletics