Owls and Bulls Battle to Final Whistle

Thursday, January 4

Tampa, Fla.

7:00 P.M.

Temple University

7-7,0-1AAC

South Florida

8-4,1-0AAC

Temple

South Fla.

Photo by: Paige Wisehaupt

Owls and Bulls Battle to Final Whistle

1.4.24 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

TAMPA, Fla.. – In a game where the final score was not indicative of how close the game was, a late-game comeback by the Temple University men's basketball team came up shy as the Owls dropped their AAC opener, 76-68 to the South Florida Bulls on Thursday night.

BY THE NUMBERS

Jordan Riley led Temple with a career-high 21 points and pulled in eight rebounds.
Hysier Miller scored 17, 12 of them in the second half, and topped the Owls with four assists.
Steve Settle III flirted with a double-double, scoring nine with nine boards.
Shane Dezonie joined Riley and Miller in double figures with 10 points.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Defense ruled early as neither team scored in the opening two minutes of the game. The Owls were the first ones to crack the scoreboard, going on a 6-0 run, fueled by a driving layup by Riley and a triple from Sam Hofman. After the Bulls went on a spurt to take a brief lead, Matteo Picarelli led a 12-5 Temple surge, scoring eight points as the Owls went up 18-12 midway through the half.
Temple held the lead through the five minute mark and was up 24-20 following a dunk by Riley before USF went on a 9-0 dash and took a 32-28 lead at the half.
TU came out of the locker room with the quick jump, using a 10-4 run to take a 38-36 lead at the opening media timeout of the frame. From there the teams went on the seesaw, trading baskets as the lead changed hands eight times in the next three minutes.
The Bulls got hot from there as despite some close-up Owls defense, USF scored 15 of the next 18 points to pull in front 65-54 with just less than six minutes remaining. Not fading away, Temple battled back to a one point game on a layup by Miller with 1:58 left.

UP NEXT
Temple returns to the friendly confines of the Liacouras Center for the first time in more than a month when it hosts Wichita State on Sunday, January 7 in a game presented by Elliott-Lewis. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. with the game being broadcast nationally on ESPNU.