Second Half Run Fuels Men’s Basketball’s 70-61 Win over USC

Friday, November 22

Los Angeles, CA

11:00 PM

Temple University

4-0,0-0AAC

USC

5-1,0-0Pac-12

Temple

Southern California

Photo by: Hali Helfgott

Second Half Run Fuels Men’s Basketball’s 70-61 Win over USC

11.23.19 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery Aaron McKie Postgame

LOS ANGELES – Junior De'Vondre Perry scored eight of his season-high tying 12 points in a decisive 19-2 Temple second half run to lift the Owls to a 70-61 win over USC Friday night at the Galen Center. The Owls improved to 4-0 on the season while handing USC (5-1) its first loss in a campus site game of the Orlando Invitational.

Game Summary

Four Owls scored in double figures led by freshman Josh Pierre-Louis's season high 15 points. He also added season bests in minutes (17), assists (3) and steals (3).
Senior guard Quinton Rose scored all 12 of his points in the second half, making four of five from the field. Seven of his points came in the final four minutes to keep the Trojans at bay. He also led the team with five assists while making two steals.
Junior Justyn Hamilton had his best game of the season, tallying 10 points while grabbing a career-high seven rebounds.
Junior Nate Pierre-Louis led the Owls in rebounding for the fourth straight game this season with 10, but his string of double-doubles was ended at four as he was held to seven points.
All nine Owls scored in the game.
Temple out-rebounded the much bigger USC squad, 42-38, and scored 21 points off turnovers to the Trojans eight.
Freshman Onyeka Okongwu led USC with 17 points, six rebounds and five blocks.

First Half

The Owls led for almost the entire first half with their largest lead being 25-16 with just over seven minutes remaining. That lead was sparked by a pretty three-point play by Josh Pierre-Louis on a reverse lay-up and foul and a subsequent three-pointer by Alani Moore (8 pts).
USC cut the margin to three, 25-22 before Hamilton and the younger Pierre-Louis made consecutive baskets to posh the lead back to seven, 29-22 with three minutes remaining.
An 8-0 USC run capped by an Isaiah Mobley layup gave the Trojans a brief 30-29 lead with 16 seconds to play.
Josh Pierre-Louis then capped his 13-point half with a steal and lay-up with under a second to play to send the Owls to intermission up 31-30.
Temple held the lead despite major four trouble to its front line. Redshirt freshman Arashma Parks had three personals while junior J.P. Moorman II, Hamilton and Nate Pierre-Louis each had two.

Second Half

USC scored the first eight point of the second half to take its biggest lead of the contest, 38-31, in the opening three minutes.
With the Owls trailing 40-34, Temple took control with a 19-2 run fueled by eight points from Perry. Rose also added his first five points of the game and capped the stretch with a lay-up off a nice feed from redshirt junior Monty Scott.
Consecutive three-pointers by Daniel Utom and Ethan Anderson cut the Owls margin to five, 61-56, with 3:57 remaining, but Rose had the answer. The Owls' senior co-captain drained a long three-pointer from the top of the key to push the lead back to eight, 64-56.
The Owls then made four-of-five free throws in the final minute to close out the game.

Next Up

Temple travels to the Orlando Invitational for a Thanksgiving weekend tournament. The Owls open with sixth-ranked Maryland on Thanksgiving morning (11 am/ESPN2/1210 AM WPHT).