Five minutes into its matchup against Southern Methodist, Temple Men’s Basketball found themselves down 15 points, and the game looked as if it was already out of hand. The Owls desperately needed a spark to get them back into the game.
Suddenly, guard Jahlil White led the Owls as they surged their way back with a 28-15 run and went into halftime down just two points. In the second half, the Owls kept up with the Mustangs, but they scored just one field goal in the final seven minutes and could not complete the comeback.
Temple (8-10, 1-4 American Athletic Conference) fell to SMU (12-5, 3-1 AAC) 77-64 on Tuesday night at the Moody Coliseum in Dallas. Temple guard Shane Dezonie scored a career-high in the comeback effort, but the Owls closed out their Texas road trip by dropping both games.
Dezonie has played more minutes in the last couple of games for the Owls, and he showed why against the Mustangs. He and White led all scorers in Cherry and White, and Dezonie added five rebounds and three assists.
The Mustangs entered Tuesday holding opponents to shooting 37 percent from the field, which is the second-best average in the country. After his team did not score for five minutes, White was instrumental in the Owls’ first-half comeback. Eight of his 14 points came in the first half, and he played strong defense to make sure the Mustangs did not pull away.
Both teams went back-and-forth scoring to start the second half, countering whatever shots each team threw at the other. The Mustangs tried to keep the Owls at arms reach, shooting 60 percent from the field in the second half.
The Owls had answers of their own. They took their first lead of the second half with about 10 minutes left after making six consecutive shots, capped off by two threes from Dezonie.
Temple’s lead never grew larger than that. The Owls missed 10 of their last 11 shot attempts, and the Mustangs, led by forward Samuell Williamson’s 17 points, pushed the lead back to double-digits and put the game out of reach.
Temple will return to The Liacouras Center and face Rice (6-11, 0-4 AAC) on Jan. 20 at 2 p.m. for the first time since beating the team 77-63 on Nov. 17, 2012.
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