Five minutes into the second half of Temple’s game against Sacred Heart on Monday, the Owls were on the ropes. They were in a five-point hole after sleepwalking out of halftime against an inferior opponent.
Suddenly, a switch flipped and the Owls came storming back. Temple guard Jamal Mashburn Jr. hit a three, which sparked three consecutive shots from beyond the arc and Temple took a six-point lead and never looked back.
Temple ballooned the lead to nine with four minutes left in the game and the Pioneers couldn’t recover. Sacred Heart tried to attempt a comeback, but a dunk by guard Zion Stanford put the icing on the cake for an opening night win for Temple.
Temple (1-0, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) defeated Sacred Heart (0-1, 0-0 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) 81-70 on Monday evening. The Owls drilled 11 three-pointers after ranking just 12th in the AAC in three-point percentage last season.
“Tough, gritty win,” said head coach Adam Fisher. “None of these are easy, but I’m really proud of the resilience of our team. When you have 10 new faces, you’re going to see some hiccups and some things through the way. I thought our guys stuck together.”
Temple started the game on the wrong foot, putting itself in a hole as large as 10 points in the first six minutes. Sacred Heart forward Bryce Johnson opened the scoring but Mashburn was there to answer right away for his first basket in a Temple uniform.
The Pioneers started to break away from there, embarking on a 10-0 run to open up a 15-5 lead. Forward Steve Settle III looked to stop the run before it got off the ground but he was called for a charge driving to the basket to continue the downward spiral.
Fisher went to his bench early with the game slowly slipping from the Owls’ grasp. The move lit a spark as Stanford was the first off the bench and ignited a 10-0 Owls run with a layup.
Mashburn followed Stanford’s shot by driving into the paint and scoring off a layup of his own. At the same time as Temple’s offensive spark, Sacred Heart was having a defensive slump.
“We practice every day on this exact same stuff, getting in the gaps, passing,” Mashburn said. “There’s definitely still some things we’ve got to clean up and get better at, but that’s the perfect position to be in. We’re never a finished product and we know that.”
Pioneer guard Griffin Barrouk fouled after turning the ball over, which set up Mashburn to knock down his first three-point shot of the night to cut the Owls’ deficit to three. Sacred Heart, feeling the pressure, missed a transition layup. Settle was looking to tie the game but missed his shot in the paint.
Mashburn’s bucket helped Temple surge back into the game and he quickly adjusted to his new home after transferring from New Mexico in the offseason. He scored 12 first-half points in his Owls debut and was a lifeline for a struggling offense for the first 10 minutes.
As the teams continued to trade buckets, the Owls were looking for an opportunity to pull away. They appeared to find it when they hit three straight shots from beyond the arc to gain a 35-29 lead. The Pioneers were determined to not let the game slip away and slowly started to chip at the Owls’ lead. Johnson stole the ball off a pass from guard Quante Berry and scored on a fast break layup as the buzzer was going off to send Temple into halftime up by just one point.
The Owls found themselves in a similar situation opening the second half. Sacred Heart extended its lead back to six at 52-46, but Temple responded much quicker this time around. Temple found its place behind the arc, finishing the day shooting 11-23 from the three-point line.
“I thought our defense wasn’t very good early,” Fisher said. “I didn’t think our communication was very good early but we figured that out. It’s a matter of learning to play together and finding combinations of guys that work.”
The Owls were looking for anything to help secure a victory and Settle looked as if he had it. He threw a dunk home to push Temple’s lead up to 71-62. The Pioneers attempted a comeback attempt but a fastbreak dunk by Stanford ended their hopes.
The Pioneers spent the final minutes of the game grasping at straws to cut the lead, but it never happened. The Owls kept their opponent at arms length after snatching the lead to secure an opening night victory.
Mashburn and guard Jameel Brown needed no time adjusting to their new home court. Mashburn led the team in points with 26 while Brown added 11 points. Settle also found double-digit figures with 16 points.
“We have multiple guys on this team that can go get 20,” Fisher said. “That’s a big thing for us, is our depth. That’s something we’re going to use throughout this season.”
Temple will travel to Trenton, New Jersey, for its next game against Monmouth (0-1, 0-0 Coastal Athletic Association) in the Jersey Jam on Nov. 8 at 6 p.m.
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