Men’s Basketball Drops Heartbreaker at Cincinnati, 64-63

Saturday, March 7

Cincinnati, OHIO

8:00 P.M.

Temple University

14-17,6-12AAC

Cincinnati

20-10,13-5AAC

Temple

Cincinnati

Men’s Basketball Drops Heartbreaker at Cincinnati, 64-63

3.8.20 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

CINCINNATI –Two of the American Athletic Conference's top players, Temple's Quinton Rose and Cincinnati's Jarron Cumberland, dueled for most of the night in a thrilling regular season finale at a sold-out Fifth Third Arena. The game was finally decided on a Tre Scott putback with 2.8 seconds remaining to give host Cincinnati a 64-63 come-from-behind win over Temple Saturday night.

It was the fifth straight loss for the Owls (14-17, 6-12 AAC) as the team heads into the conference tournament as either the nine of 10 seed while the Bearcats (20-10, 13-5 AAC) post their third win in their last four games and keep alive hopes for a share of the conference regular season crown.

Game Summary
> Cumberland, the reigning AAC Player of the Year, was a force all night. He had game highs of 20 points and seven assists to go along with his seven rebounds.
> Quinton Rose matched Cumberland with a team-high 19 points while grabbing five rebounds and dishing two assists
> Mamoudou Diarra (12 pts) and Keith Williams (11) also tallied double figures for the Bearcats while De'Vondre Perry (10) had his first double-digit scoring game since the Owls' AAC opener on Dec. 31 at UCF.
> Temple led for almost the entire contest on the strength of a stifling defense and timely offense. The Owls limited the Bearcats to 17 first half points on 24 percent shooting, including 10 percent (1-10) from three-point range.
> Cincinnati flipped the script in the second half, shooting 50 percent overall and from long range (6-12) to wipe away a 14-point halftime deficit to eke out the victory on its Senior Night.

First Half
> Temple jumped out to a 9-2 lead by the first media timeout and never trailed in the opening period.
> The Owls limited the Bearcats to one field goal over their first 12 attempts in building a 15-5 advantage. Damion Moore (8 pts) scored four points in the opening stretch with Alani Moore adding six of his team-high nine first half points.
> Cincinnati made three straight field goals to cut the deficit to four, 15-11, but Temple held the Bearcats at arm's length before going on a 12-4 run to open up its largest margin at the half, 31-17.

Second Half
> The Bearcats came out on fire, scoring six straight points in the opening two-plus minutes to cut the deficit to single digits, 31-23.
> Rose then buried a three in scoring five of the next seven points to extend the margin back to double digits, 36-25.
> The teams then went back and forth for the next 10 minutes with the Owls able to keep an eight-to-10 point margin on the Bearcats.
> Following a Rose breakaway dunk that gave Temple a 52-41 lead, the Bearcats ran off eight straight points with threes by Williams and Jaevin Cumberland (9 pts) making it a one-possession game, 52-49, with 5:35 to play.
> J.P. Moorman II drained a jumper in the lane to boost the Owls' advantage to five, but Diarra hit a top of the key trey to make it 54-52.
> Diarra then made one of two from the line and then blocked a shot that sent the Bearcats on a fastbreak with Williams' layup giving the hosts their first lead, 55-54, of the night with 3:26 left.
> Perry then drained a three, but Jarron Cumberland matched him on the next possession to make it 58-57 UC.
> Rose then found Perry for a breakaway dunk to give Temple the lead, 59-58.
> Diarra connected on two free throws to lift UC back on top before Rose converted one of two from the charity stripe to deadlock the contest at 60 with 1:23 on the clock.
> Cumberland then bulled his way to a layup in the lane to give Cincinnati a 62-60 edge. The teams traded misses before Moorman connected on a three from the right baseline for Temple's final lead, 63-62, with 11 seconds to play.
> Cumberland took the ball down the court, driving the lane only to see his shot rim off. Scott was there to haul in his game-high 12^th rebound and lay it in for just his second basket (5 pts) on 10 attempts.
> Rose took the inbounds pass from Moore, but his three-quarter court shot, which appeared on line, fell short to end the thriller.

Up Next
> Temple will next play in the first round of the American Athletic Conference Championship on Thursday. The Owls will either be the ninth or 10^th seed with that being determined following the outcome of Sunday's ECU at UCF game.