Late Scoring Drought Dooms Men’s Basketball in Loss to USF

Sunday, March 1

12:00 P.M.

Temple University

14-15,6-10AAC

USF

13-16,6-10AAC

South Fla.

Temple

Photo by: Zamani Feelings

Late Scoring Drought Dooms Men’s Basketball in Loss to USF

3.1.20 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA –Hooter the Owl celebrated his birthday Sunday at the Liacouras Center, but Temple (14-15, 6-10 AAC) was not able to give him the present the beloved mascot so wanted, an Owls win, in falling 64-58 to USF (13-16, 5-11 AAC). It was the third straight loss for Temple, and just the second while celebrating Hooter's birthday in 15 years.

Game Summary
> The Owls missed their final eight shots and were outscored 11-1 over the final four minutes after building a seven-point (54-47) second half advantage.
> Nate Pierre-Louis recorded his fifth double-double of the season (12 pts, 12 rebs) and added a career-high seven assists to lead the Owls.
> Quinton Rose led the Owls with 13 points while also grabbing seven rebounds and dishing four assists while not turning the ball over.
> Monty Scott tallied nine points off the bench, but struggled from the field on 3-of-13 shooting.
> Justin Brown topped four USF double figure scorers with 13 points while grabbing a team-best nine rebounds.
> The Bulls, who are ranked 20^th in the nation in scoring defense (62.4 ppg), snapped an 11-game losing streak against the Owls with the victory being their first in the series since the first conference meeting between the teams on Jan. 9, 2014.

First Half
> USF opened the game off by hitting its first four shots en route to a 13-5 lead at the first media timeout. The Bulls' 7-0 forward Michael Durr led the attack with six points and two blocks in the opening four minutes.
>The Bulls extended their lead to double-figures, 18-8, before the Owls ran off five straight a few minutes later with a Scott three-pointer cutting the deficit to 19-15 with just over 10 minutes on the clock.
> The Owls could not get closer than four the remainder of the half with the Bulls' Xavier Castaneda draining a trey with under a minute to play to push the lead to 33-25 at the break.
> USF led the entire period with the difference being the Bulls offensive rebounds (7) and forced turnovers (7) leading to six more shots for the visitors.

Second Half
> Temple started the second half strong with a Pierre-Louis dunk and a J.P. Moorman II three cutting the deficit to one possession, 33-30.
> USF answered with consecutive layups before Rose rattled off five points to bring the Owls to within two, 37-35.
> Following a basket by Bulls big man Antun Maricevic (10 pts), Temple rolled off nine straight points with a Scott three giving the Owls their first lead, 41-39, and a three-point play by Pierre-Louis extending it to 44-39 at the 10:53 mark.
> The Bulls would score five of the next seven to cut the Owls lead to 46-44, and then inch within one on a Justin Brown three-pointer, 48-47, with 7:56 to play.
> Temple then scored six straight points to push the margin to seven, 54-47, but USF refused to go away as threes by Laquincy Rideau and Brown brought it back to a one-point game, 54-53.
> Rose connected on his third three of the contest to give the Owls a 57-53 lead with 4:10 to play, but Temple then went on a scoring drought, tallying just one Scott free throw the remainder of the game in falling for the third straight game.

Up Next
> Temple will honor its senior players and managers Wednesday when the Owls host first place Tulsa in its regular season home finale. Tip time is set for 7 pm with the game being televised by ESPN3 and broadcast on 1210 AM WPHT.