Men's Basketball Falls at Georgia Despite Career High Effort by Enechionyia

Friday, December 22

Athens, Ga.

1:00 p.m.

Temple University

7-4

Georgia

9-2

Temple

Georgia

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Men's Basketball Falls at Georgia Despite Career High Effort by Enechionyia

12.22.17 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

ATHENS, Ga. - Despite a career-high 27 points for senior Obi Enechionyia, Temple men's basketball struggled as a whole in an 84-66 loss at Georgia. The Owls (7-4) trailed by 14 or more points for the entire second half as the Bulldogs (9-2) never let up defensively.

Keys to the Game
> Yante Maten hit 12-of-17 free throws for Georgia and finished with a game-high 30 points.
> On the glass, the Bulldogs out-rebounded Temple 48-30, led by Maten with 12 boards.
> Georgia used a few early runs to surge ahead, and held a double-digit lead for the last 5:33 of the first half and all of the second.
> Temple had only allowed an average of 14 opponent free throws prior to Georgia, but the Bulldogs went 28-of-39 at the stripe.

Individual Highlights
> Enechionyia drained 7-of-9 three-pointers, making five of those in the second half. His seven mark the most by a Temple player since Devin Coleman hit seven in an upset of #8 SMU on Jan. 24, 2016.
> Held without a point in the first half, sophomore Quinton Rose scored 13 in the second and led the Owls with eight total rebounds along with a game-high five assists.
> Sophomore Alani Moore II was a first-half spark off the bench for the Owls, scoring nine points on 3-of-5 shooting overall.

First Half
> After taking a 7-2 early lead, the rest of the half was a struggle for the Owls.
> Georgia used a 25-5 run to take a 15-point, 27-12 lead, and Temple trailed by at least 12 for the rest of the period.
> Moore II came off the bench for nine first-half points on 3-of-3 shooting, but the rest of the Owls went just 5-for-23 (21.7 percent).
> Georgia dominated on the glass with 25 rebounds to Temple's 11, and shot close to 52 percent while the Owls finished at 31 percent overall.
> Nicolas Claxton made a tipin at the buzzer for the Bulldogs' largest lead to that point, 42-23 heading into halftime.

Second Half
> Georgia built its lead to as many as 23 points in the opening minute of the half.
> Trailing 49-27 at at 16:35, the Owls used a 13-5 run to cut their deficit to 14, but could come no closer the rest of the way.

Quotable - Fran Dunphy Postgame
> "We've had some really great wins and some really tough losses (in our non-conference schedule). It's a hell of a schedule. We have no breathers by any stretch. We had to play better in a number of games and we had opportunities, today being one of them."

>"Obi played well. I thought he got his legs under him and really shot the ball extremely well."

>"Q and Shizz really struggled offensively in the first half. We need those two guys. When they struggle like they did, that hurts."

Up Next
> Temple opens American Athletic Conference play at home against Tulane at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 28 (ESPN2 / 1210 AM WPHT).