Men’s Basketball Drops Another Nail-Biter to Cincinnati, 71-69

Friday, February 12

Cincinnati OH

7:00 P.M.

Temple University

4-8,3-8AAC

Cincinnati

6-7,4-4AAC

Temple

Cincinnati

Photo by: Zamani Feelings

Men’s Basketball Drops Another Nail-Biter to Cincinnati, 71-69

2.12.21 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Aaron McKie Postgame Interview De'Vondre Perry Postgame Interview

CINCINNATI – Temple dropped its third-straight one-possession game, and second to Cincinnati in eight days, as the Owls fell to the Bearcats, 71-69, Friday night at Fifth Third Arena. Temple falls to 4-8 overall and 3-8 in American Athletic Conference play. Cincinnati, playing its first home game in 41 days, improves to 6-7, 4-4 AAC.

Brendan Barry scored all of his game-high 17 points in the final eight minutes to lead four Owl double-figure scorers. Jeremiah Williams added a career-high 16 points while Khalif Battle and De'Vondre Perry contributed 11 and 10, respectively.

Leading scorer Damian Dunn, who entered the game with a 15.0 scoring average, was held without a point. The redshirt freshman was limited to just 12 minutes of action due to injury. Jeremiah Davenport and Mike Adams-Woods led the Bearcats with 12 points each.

Recapping the Game
First Half
> The Owls jumped out quickly, taking an early 9-2 lead off two baskets by Jake Forrester with Williams adding a three-pointer and a reverse layup in traffic off a feed from J.P. Moorman II.
> Cincinnati stormed back, scoring 16 of the next 20 points, including eight-straight to take an 18-13 lead on a Chris Vogt basket at the 11:22 mark.
> Temple answered with six-straight with Battle scoring the final four to give the Owls an 19-18 advantage.
> The teams traded baskets before the Bearcats took advantage of an Owl drought (0-5 FGS) with six-straight points to move in front 26-21.
> After Forrester broke the Owls scoring drought with free throws, Cincinnati got consecutive threes from Adams-Woods and Zach Harvey to open a double-digit lead, 32-22, with 2:10 remaining.
> Temple, which had missed its previous eight field goals, finally found the range to close out the half on baskets by Williams and Perry.  That cut the deficit to 32-26 at the break.

Second Half
> Neither team started strong to open the final 20 minutes until Temple ran off seven-straight with a Williams steal and layup capping the run to tie the game at 36.
> Cincinnati answered with a 7-2 run capped by a Tari Eason basket to take a 43-38 lead.  The Bearcats would extend it to six points twice, the last on a Davenport three to make it 49-43.
> With the Owls trailing, 46-40, Barry would go on an 8-2 run, banking in his first of two three-pointers and converting two technical free throws to trim the margin to one, 49-48.
> Cincinnati responded with 12 of the next 16 points to open up its lead to 61-52.
> Barry drained another three-pointer to cut the deficit to 61-55, but Vogt dropped in a basket in the lane to push it back to 63-55.
> Williams then found Perry for a corner three to make it 63-58 with 2:24 remaining.
> The Owls cut it to four on a three-point play by Williams and then, following a David DeJulius free throw, Barry was fouled on a corner three and made all three free throws to make it 68-66 with one minute on the clock.
> Battle then fouled Mason Madsen, who made one of two free throws, then Battle was called on an offensive foul giving the ball back to UC.
> After a DeJulius miss from deep, Williams made a layup in traffic to make it 69-68 with 11.2 seconds left.
> Madsen then was fouled and made both free throws with 10 seconds to play.
> Moorman's three was short, but Barry rebounded and was fouled with 0.6 seconds to play.  He made one, but a lane violation gave the ball to Cincinnati and they were able to end the game on the ensuing in bounds.

Next Up
> Temple stays on the road, traveling to Tulsa for a Tuesday game (7 pm ET/ESPNU/1210 AM WPHT) against the Golden Hurricane.