Temple men’s basketball drops back-and-forth game to ECU

With 10 seconds left, junior guard Nate Pierre-Louis gave the ball away to East Carolina sophomore forward Jayden Gardner. Then, East Carolina (11-17, 5-10 The American Athletic Conference) iced the game with three free throws as it won 67-63 against Temple (14-13, 6-8 The AAC) Sunday afternoon in Greenville, North Carolina.

The Owls struggled to make free throws all game, finishing 13-of-26 from the line while the Pirates made 17-of-24, good for a 70.8 percent clip.

Both teams struggled to shoot. The Owls only made 35.5 percent of their shots from the field and 25 percent of their threes. The Pirates were slightly better at 39.7 percent from the field and 26.7 percent from behind the arc.

Gardner led all scorers with 29 points while shooting 13-of-24 from the field. The Owls limited Gardner to 11 points on Feb. 1 at the Liacouras Center. Gardner, who is the AAC’s leading scorer at 20.2 points per game, grabbed 13 rebounds to finish with a double-double. Gardner also recorded four assists, three steals and two blocks.

Junior guard J.J. Miles added 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Freshman guard Tristen Newton recorded 10 points and six rebounds. Newton got eight of his points from the free-throw line and only missed one free throw.

Senior guard Quinton Rose led the Owls with 15 points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks on 5-of-18 shooting from the field. Rose only connected on one of his seven three-point attempts.

Redshirt-junior guard Monty Scott recorded 12 points, four rebounds and four assists on 4-of-15 shooting from the field. Scott only made one of his six three-point attempts and 3-of-8 from the free-throw line. Coming into Sunday’s game, Scott converted on 81.8 percent of his free throws. Rose and Scott were the only Temple players to reach double digits.

The Owls will stay on the road as they go to Kansas to take on Wichita State (20-7, 8-6 The AAC) on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. The Owls previously beat the then-16th ranked Shockers 65-53 on Jan. 15 at the Liacouras Center.