Temple was trailing for most of the first half and struggled to hold onto momentum long enough to take the advantage against Buffalo on Saturday. However, the Owls completely took control in the final seven minutes of the opening half.
Temple ended the first half outscoring Buffalo by nine and carried that into the second half. The Owls held a 16-point lead midway through the half before the Bulls started to climb back into the game. Buffalo cut its deficit in half before the Owls snapped back to reality.
Guard Quante Berry gave Temple the spark of energy it needed after he stole the ball and slammed down a dunk. He followed it up with a three-pointer and the Owls cruised from there.
Temple (8-5, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) defeated Buffalo (5-7, 0-0 Mid-American Conference) 91-71 Sunday afternoon at The Liacouras Center. The Owls went undefeated in non-conference games on their home court.
“I’m proud of these guys,” said head coach Adam Fisher. “I’m proud that we went five and zero in the non-conference at home. I think that’s important. There’s teams in our league that play nine home games and we play five. So proud of these guys that we challenge ourselves to get ready for league play.”
Guard Aiden Tobiason scored the first five Temple points and was the only Owl to score in the first four minutes of the game. However, the freshman also picked up two quick fouls, forcing Fisher to replace him with guard Shane Dezonie.
Buffalo scored six points to start the game with a three-pointer from guard Noah Batchelor and a three-point play from guard Ryan Sabol. The run put Temple in a hole that it struggled to dig itself out of.
“We feel very confident,” said guard Jamal Mashburn Jr. “We feel like we can be one of the best teams. We’ve just got to go out there to show it and prove it. And do things together and staying together during adverse moments.”
Buffalo guard Tyson Dunn looked to draw a charge from Mashburn, but it backfired and was called a block. Buffalo struggled to stay disciplined on defense, drawing 12 fouls in the first half and Temple was put in bonus within the first eight minutes of the game.
The Bulls went on a 13-4 run with the Owls’ only points coming from the free throw line. The run was capped off by an and-one from guard Anquan Boldin Jr. Despite Dezonie fouling Boldin, the senior started to turn the tide for the Owls.
Dezonie broke a nearly five-minute long field goal drought for Temple with a fast-break layup. He then drew from the energy and stole the ball and found guard Zion Stanford, who was fouled while going up for a layup. The sophomore sank both free throws to cut the Owls’ deficit to 13-11.
Buffalo maintained its lead with a shot from beyond the arc from Boldin but Temple was playing with a new spark of energy.
“That’s what you preach like, if you don’t care about your numbers, if you really care about winning and losing, you can do something special,” Fisher said. “And that’s been our whole focus.”
Stanford looked to shoot a three-pointer but saw forward Steve Settle III open in the corner and passed to him, which he connected on. The Owls could still not break away from Buffalo as it held on to the 21-18 advantage.
Temple started creeping up to the Bulls with two free throws from Settle to put the Owls within one point midway through the first half. However, guard Matteo Picarelli fouled back-to-back and Temple quickly found itself down by five.
“It’s really just communication [that stopped the defense from clicking] and just going with what the game has given us,” Mashburn said. “It’s been a story for us all year, just communicating on defense, finishing possessions. We just got to continue to get better and every day is a 1% chance to get better.”
After 12 minutes of play, Mashburn scored his first points of the game with a three-pointer. The Bulls immediately answered with their own shot from beyond the arc. Mashburn, determined to flip the script, made a layup that did just that.
Settle tied the score at 28 with six minutes remaining in the half and Temple took control from there. The Owls ended the half on a 16-1 run to take a 39-29 lead. Six Temple players scored in the run and the Bulls could not get out of their hump, missing 11 shots in the span.
The Owls carried their aggression into the second half and Mashburn scored right off the bat. Mashburn was quiet in the first half, only scoring five points, but woke up in the final 20 minutes and finished the night with 18.
Both teams struggled to find the basket but Mashburn found his spot from downtown to push the Owls’ lead to 49-36. Buffalo endured a four minute field goal drought before guard Tyson Dunn pulled his team out with a three-point bucket.
A 7-2 run gave Temple its biggest lead at that point at 58-42 with 12 minutes remaining in the game. The Owls mistakenly let down their guard and the Bulls jumped at the opportunity to claw their way back into the game. Buffalo went on an 8-0 run to cut its deficit to just eight points.
Temple was in the midst of a three-minute scoreless period when Fisher called a timeout trying to reset his squad. The break didn’t pay off immediately, but Berry ended the slump with a fast break dunk and a three-pointer. Berry contributed 15 points and ended the night with a career-high four steals.
“I was just trying to make the right play for my team out there when we needed it,” Berry said. “That’s all that was going through my head, was just ‘make the dunk.’”
Buffalo had its same first-half fouling trouble in the second half, fouling 13 times in the final 20 minutes. The Owls capitalized at the line, scoring 23 points at 65% efficiency. As the Owls continued to balloon their lead, the Bulls could not find their shot. Temple outscored Buffalo by 10 points in each half to cruise to the 91-71 victory to cap off its non-conference slate.
The Owls will look to keep the momentum going when they start conference play against Wichita State (9-3, 0-0 AAC) on Jan. 3 at 7 p.m at The Liacouras Center.
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