Men’s Basketball Completes Three-Game Sweep in The Bahamas

NASSAU, The Bahamas – Three up, three down for the Temple men's basketball team as the Aaron McKie era opened with a sweep of its Bahamian Tour schedule. The Owls completed their trifecta Tuesday with an 88-74 victory over a Bahamian Select Team.
Highlights

It was another balanced attack by the Owls as five players scored in double figures. Justyn Hamilton, JP Moorman II and Damion Moore led the Cherry and White with 13 apiece while Quinton Rose added 12 and Nate Pierre-Louis chipped in with 11 points.
Eleven of the 12 Temple players who saw action scored with the lone player not tallying points, Arashma Parks, taking three offensive charges in his 10 minutes of action.
Temple led for nearly the entire game, and by as many as 17 points, but was never able to pull away from the all-star local talent assembled for the contest.
With the game tight at the five minute mark (14-12), McKie inserted a new unit with Moorman (7 pts) and Hamilton (5) combining on a 12-6 run to give the Owls a 26-18 edge after the first quarter.
It was an even second quarter with Temple holding a 44-36 lead at the half.
A right corner three-pointer by Hamilton, his second of the game, followed by a Monty Scott jumper extended the Owls lead to 15, 56-41, midway through the third. The quarter would end with Temple ahead 62-49.
The Bahamians cut the deficit to single digits early in the fourth, but the Owls fired off six straight points, the last a Rose layup off a nice feed by Scott made it 74-60 at the 5:39 mark.
The home team rallied back, cutting the deficit to 77-69 with 3:39 to play, but Temple scored the next seven straight to ice the game.

Statistically Speaking

Temple shot nearly 50 percent (34-69) and scored 52 of its points in the paint.
The Owls had 22 assists with Scott and Josh Pierre-Louis leading the way with six each.
De'Vondre Perry led Temple with six rebounds while Nate Pierre-Louis and Damion Dunn each pulled down five.
Zane Knowles, who has played professionally in the G-League and France, led the Bahamas Select team with 25 points and 11 rebounds.

Quotable

"It was a really good trip. It was great to finish with a win, get back on the plane and head back to Philadelphia. I thought we got off to a slow start tonight. Guys just were not ready to go from the beginning and a lot of that is on me. I have to make sure I have these guys prepared and ready to go, but we found a way. Our second group that came in the game picked it up, gave us some energy, a shot in the arm. We have to do a much better job of rebounding the ball and that is what kept the team around against us. They were able to get second chance opportunities and we have to clean that up." – Aaron McKie