Temple Falls 81-70 to Belmont in NCAA First Four

Tuesday, March 19

Dayton, Ohio

9:10 p.m.

Temple University

23-10

Belmont (NCAA First Four)

27-5

Temple

Belmont

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Temple Falls 81-70 to Belmont in NCAA First Four

3.19.19 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Post Game Press Conference

DAYTON, Ohio - The Temple men's basketball season and the career of 13th-year head coach Fran Dunphy both came to a disappointing end with an 81-70 loss to Belmont in the NCAA First Four. The Owls (23-10) had two come-from-behind runs but couldn't come up with a third in the closing minutes, while the Bruins (27-5) were solid at the free throw line.

Game Summary
> The Owls had a five-point lead with 11:24 remaining, but Belmont surged back ahead with a 9-0 run and Temple struggled the rest of the way.
> The Bruins shot 53 percent from the field to Temple's 39 percent, and made 76 percent of their free throws compared to the Owls' 54 percent.
> Temple and sophomore guard Nate Pierre-Louis held Belmont's leading scorer Dylan Windler (21.4 ppg) to just five points, but Windler grabbed 14 rebounds to lead all players. The Bruins instead got a career-high 29 points from senior Kevin McClain.
> Two 10-0 runs helped Temple come back from early deficits in the first half and the second, but a third run never materialized in the final stretch.

Individual Highlights
> For the ninth game in a row, and in the final game of his career, senior Shizz Alston reached the 20-point mark and scored a team-high 21 for the Owls while also dishing five assists.
> Pierre-Louis recorded his third double-double of the season with 13 points and team-best 11 rebounds, getting five of those on the offensive glass.
> Junior Quinton Rose and sophomore J.P. Moorman II both scored 10 points, with Moorman doing so on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and also grabbing eight boards in a strong performance.
> Senior Ernest Aflakupi posted nine rebounds and seven points in his final game for the Owls despite missing most of the first half after committing two early fouls.

First Half
> After hitting the opening bucket, Temple had to chase as the Bruins jumped out to an 8-2 lead.
> Aflakpui pulled down three early boards before getting his second foul and sitting for the final 17 minutes of the period.
> The Owls were trailing by their largest margin of seven, 15-8 at 14:47 before turning on the jets.
> Temple hit six straight field goals and used a 10-0 run, capped by Alston and Moorman three-pointers, to take a 22-17 lead at 11:29.
> The shooting went cold for the Owls after the run, while Belmont turned it back up with an 8-2 run to take back the lead with 6:35 remaining.
> An Alani Moore II three-pointer briefly put Temple back up by one before a 7-0 Belmont run.
> The Owls had a stretch of making just one for eight from the field, and the Bruins later closed the half with five straight points to take a 37-31 lead into the break.

Second Half
> Belmont made the first two buckets of the second half to take its first double-digit lead of 11, 42-31, but the Owls answered with their second 10-0 run of the game.
> Rose started it off with a steal and a layup, Alston hit back-to-back treys and Aflakpui capped it with a layup at the 15-minute mark to get Temple within a point, 42-41.
> Belmont was back up by three before Alston's third three-pointer of the half tied the game for the first time at 46-46 with 13:49 to go.
> Temple turned that bucket into the start of a 7-0 run, and soon had its largest lead of five, 52-47 on a Pierre-Louis jumper at 11:24.
> In a repeat scenario from the first half, the Owls went cold, going scoreless for three and a half minutes while a 9-0 Belmont run put the Bruins up 56-52.
> The Owls got an old-fashioned three-point play from Pierre-Louis to cut the deficit to one with eight minutes left, but the game then began to slip away.
> Temple hit just one of eight while Belmont pulled ahead with a 7-0 run and the Bruins went on to lead by at least nine for the final four minutes.