Temple, playing shorthanded due to injury and illness, gave it all it had but came up short in falling to #12 Houston, 66-61, at the Liacouras Center Sunday evening. The Owls fall to 7-6 overall, 0-2 in the American Athletic Conference play while the Cougars improve to 12-2 (1-0 AAC).
Both teams were missing key players. Houston lost two key players, Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mack to season-ending injuries heading into the game and Kyler Edwards to an ankle injury for this contest. The Owls, who had lost the AAC's leading scorer Khalif Battle (21.4 ppg) earlier in December, were missing Jake Forrester (non-covid illness) and Tai Strickland (back) for the game.
Recapping the Game
First Half
> Houston jumped out to a quick 8-0 start and kept the Owls at arm's length for most of the first half.
> Temple used a 7-2 mini-run to cut the margin to four, 24-20, on a Jeremiah Williams three with 7:12 on the clock.
> The Cougars then ran off 12 unanswered points to open up a 36-20 lead with three minutes to play.
> Hysier Miller then hit two jumpers, one a three-pointer, to cut the deficit to 11, 36-25,
> Zach Hicks, who made a school-record 10 threes in the team's last game, drained his only one of the frame to close out the half down 40-29.
Second Half
> The Owls quickly cut the deficit to five, 40-35, with a Damian Dunn three-pointer capping a 6-0 run to start the half.
> A Jeremiah Williams steal and layup made it a one-point game, 42-41, just over two minutes later.
> Houston would answer with an 11-3 run to extend its lead to 53-44, before Hicks stopped the run with his third three of the game.
> The Cougars then ran off five straight to push the margin back to double-figures, 57-47, with 8:31 to play on a Ramon Walker, Jr. three-pointer.
> Temple responded with seven straight points with Jahlil White's corner three making it a one-possession game, 57-54, with just under six minutes left.
> A Nick Jourdain three two minutes later cut the margin to two, 59-57, but Walker would answer with a three for Houston as the shot clock expired to push the lead to 62-57.
> Dunn made a free throw to cut it to 62-58, and the Owls had their chances over the next 90 seconds but were unable to score on their next two possessions.
> Houston made four-of-four from the line over the final 24 seconds to help seal the win.
Statistically Speaking
> Arashma Parks made his first start of the season and just second of his career in place of Forrester.
> Jourdain had a career-high 12 points while White had a career-high seven rebounds to lead Temple.
> Williams added nine points and a team-high six assists against one turnover.
> Fabian White, Jr. led four Houston double-figure scorers with 15 points and 14 rebounds.
> Temple held Houston to 18 percent shooting from three-point range (4-22) while connecting on 10 of 27 from beyond the arc (37%).
Next Up
> Temple travels to UCF for Jan. 5 game (7 pm/ESPN+/1210 AM WPHT).
