The repercussions of back-to-back overtime games must have taken their toll on the Temple men’s basketball team.
After defeating Massachussetts and Rhode Island in overtime games at the Liacouras Center earlier this week, the Owls lost to host Dayton, 77-66, at the University of Dayton Arena Saturday.
Dayton senior Brian Roberts scored 23 points on 7-of-11 shooting and senior guard Andres Sandoval contributed 15 points and seven rebounds to lead the Flyers (17-7, 5-6 Atlantic Ten Conference).
“They have one of the best players in the league and he showed it tonight,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said about Roberts.
The Owls (13-11, 6-4) allowed Dayton to shoot 57.1 percent from the field and 60 percent from behind the three point line. Temple also gave the Flyers plenty of extra offensive possessions as the Owls committed 15 turnovers, nine of which were attributed to senior Mark Tyndale and junior Dionte Christmas.
On the offensive end, Tyndale and Christmas each scored a team-high 19 points, although Christmas only shot 6-of-16 from the field.
With 17 minutes, 35 seconds left in the second half, the Flyers embarked on a 12-2 run which broke an otherwise close contest open. By the end of the run, Dayton held a 48-35 advantage with 14:54 remaining in the second stanza.
Temple climbed back within five points of the lead nearly two minutes later, but the Flyers managed to keep the Owls at bay for the next several minutes before a 9-0 run gave them a 68-51 lead with 6:10 left.
Semaj Inge, who was coming off of his best performance of the season against Rhode Island Wednesday, started the game in place of freshman Lavoy Allen, who was disciplined for missing a study hall during the week, according to the Temple Athletics Web site.
“That is a tough lesson to learn and hopefully it will never happen again,” Dunphy said. “He is a great guy, a low maintenance guy but it was just one of those things where he forced my hand.”
Inge wasn’t able to repeat the success he had in the Owls previous game, however, as the junior guard went scoreless on 0-of-2 shooting. The Owls other two starters, junior Sergio Olmos and sophomore Luis Guzman, combined for only two points.
Senior Chris Clark and sophomore Ryan Brooks picked up the slack for the starters, scoring 10 and 12 points, respectively, off the bench.
Next up for Temple is a matchup with Saint Bonaventure (7-16, 1-8) at the Reilly Center Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Tyson McCloud can be reached at Tyson@temple.edu.
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