Men’s Basketball Falls at Ole Miss, 63-55

Saturday, December 17

Oxford, Miss

5:00 PM

Temple University

6-6,0-0AAC

Ole Miss

8-3,0-0SEC

Temple

Ole Miss

Photo by: Zamani Feelings

Men’s Basketball Falls at Ole Miss, 63-55

12.17.22 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

OXFORD, Miss. – Temple dropped a tough defensive battle at Ole Miss Saturday evening as the Owls went cold in the second half, shooting a season-low 24.1 percent in the final 20 minutes in a 63-55 loss. Temple falls to 6-6 overall and hosts Maryland Eastern Shore Tuesday in its non-conference finale. Ole Miss improves to 8-3.

Damian Dunn (16) and Khalif Battle (15) combined for 31 points to lead the Owls. Matthew Murrell scored a game-high 19 points with Daeshun Ruffin adding 17 for the Rebels.

First Half
> Temple jumped out to an 11-6 lead in the first eight minutes as Zach Hicks drained two threes and Dunn accounted for the other five Temple points.
> The Owls would extend their lead to eight, 17-9, on a basket by Kur Jongkuch at the 8:14 mark, but the Rebels answered with six straight to cut the margin to a two (17-15) with just over six minutes on the clock.
> Temple would hold off Ole Miss and take a 27-24 lead at the break following a Jongkuch layup off a Hysier Miller pass to close the period.
> After scoring the first five points for Temple, Dunn was saddled with two fouls and played just eight minutes in the period.
> Temple's defense limited Ole Miss to 26.9 percent (7-of-26) from the field and 15.4 percent (2-of-13) from long range. Unfortunately, the Owls were not able to capitalize, shooting just 10-of-28 (35.7%) and 21.4 percent (3-of-14), respectively.

Second Half
> Ole Miss forged its first tie since the opening minutes, running off four straight points capped by a Murrell dunk to make it 35-all at the 13:51 mark.
> The Rebels would follow that with their first lead since early in the first half as a three-point play by TJ Caldwell made it 38-37.
> The lead would then go back and forth over the next five minutes until the Rebels used a 6-0 run to take a two-possession lead, 48-42, with 6:12 remaining.
> Temple cut the lead to just one basket (56-53) on a free throw from Nick Jourdain at the 1:14 mark, but Ole Miss would score seven of the final nine points to seal the win.

Game Notes
> Jongkuch made his first start as an Owl, replacing the injured Jamille Reynolds.
> This was Temple's second time playing in the state of Mississippi. The Owls previously played at Ole' Miss in 1997.
> Emmanuel Okpomo saw his first action of the season.

Next Up
> Temple returns home to host Maryland Eastern Shore at the Liacouras Center on Tuesday, Dec. 20 (7 pm/ESPN+/1210 AM WPHT).