Late Run Falls Short as Men’s Basketball Season Ends with 73-71 Loss to USF

Thursday, March 11

Fort Worth, Texas

12:00 P.M.

Temple University

5-11,4-10AAC

USF

9-12,4-10AAC

Temple

South Fla.

Late Run Falls Short as Men’s Basketball Season Ends with 73-71 Loss to USF

3.11.21 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Postgame Press Conference

FORT WORTH, Tex. – Ninth-seeded Temple had a late second half run that came up just short, falling to eighth-seeded USF, 73-71, in the first round of the 2021 Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference Championship Thursday afternoon at Dickies Arena. The Owls end their season at 5-11 while the Bulls (8-12) advance to the quarterfinal round where they will meet top-seed Wichita State.

Khalif Battle led the Owls with a double-double, 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Damian Dunn and Brendan Barry each scored 11 points. Jake Forrester added seven points and a team-high 11 rebounds. USF's David Collins led all scorers with 23 points.

Recapping the Game
First Half
> Jeremiah Williams, who was surprisingly left off the AAC All-Freshman Team, started things off for Temple with a three-pointer in the first minute.
> The teams would trade baskets until the Owls ran off nine-straight points to open a 14-4 run with just under 14 minutes on the clock. Nick Jourdain started the run with a three while Dunn, back after missing the last three games with a knee injury, would score the final four points while assisting on a Battle basket.
> Battle drained a three a minute later to give Temple its largest lead of its half, 17-6, and the Owls would keep the Bulls at arms-length for the next six minutes.
> Trailing 27-17, USF scored seven-straight points in less than a minute with a Collins jumper making it a three-point game.
> After the teams traded baskets, Collins scored four-straight to narrow the Temple lead to one, 29-28 with 3:22 to play.
> The Owls quickly pushed the margin to five on a Battle jumper and then an alley-oop dunk by J.P. Moorman II off a Battle assist.
> USF finally took its first lead of the game after a 5-0 run capped by a Jamir Chaplin three put the Bulls ahead, 36-35, with 51 seconds left.
> Moorman connected for a jumper to give Temple the lead back, but a layoff by Michael Durr at the buzzer gave USF a 38-37 lead at intermission.

Second Half
> Temple opened the second half with four-straight points to regain the lead, but USF answered with nine-straight, building its largest lead of the contest, 47-41, on a Collins three-pointer at the 16:44 mark.
> After Dunn drained two free throws, USF ran off six-straight with Chaplin making two layups to extend the Bulls lead to double figures, 53-43 with just under 12 minutes remaining.
> Williams then hit a one-handed jumper in the lane to break an 0-15 drought from the field for the Owls. USF answered though with a Chaplin three-pointer to increase its lead to 56-45 with 9:25 remaining.
> The Bulls lead would hover around 10 until the final two minutes.
> Brendan Barry, who had not taken a shot all game, made a steal and drained a three-pointer with 1:58 to play to cut the deficit to 67-59. It was the first of three-straight treys for the Temple sharpshooter over a 51-second stretch with his personal 9-0 run trimming the margin to two, 67-65, with 1:07 to play.
> Collins made two free throws to push the game back to two possessions, but Williams made a driving reverse layup to again nip it to a basket.
> Collins then missed a jumper in the lane, but Chaplin came up with a huge rebound for USF and scored underneath to make it 71-67 with 20 seconds left.
> Battle was fouled just four seconds later and made both free throws to cut the deficit to one.
> Barry was then called for a controversial foul as it appeared on the replay that Brown extended his forearm into his chest. After a lengthy review, Brown was awarded two free throws and made both to make it 73-69 with 12 seconds on the clock.
> Williams made a layup with seven seconds and was fouled. The freshman guard missed the free throw attempt and Collins was fouled.
> Collins, who made just three of 10 from the line, missed both attempts and Battle then pushed the ball up court, but turned it over to end the contest.

Statistically Speaking
> It was Battle's third double-double of the season.
> Barry finishes his year tied with Juan Fernandez with the third-highest single-season three-point percentage (29-64, .453) by an Owl.
> Sage Tolbert III made his Temple debut, playing eight minutes and grabbing three rebounds.