With less than a minute left, Temple looked to be in good position to pull out a conference victory on the road against East Carolina. However, Pirates’ guard RJ Felton stole the ball and put his team back within one point with 26 seconds remaining. Guard Jayshayne Woodard followed it up with another bucket to take a one-point lead, giving Temple 10 seconds to score a basket.
Temple guard Zion Stanford was in position to score but missed a layup attempt. The Owls almost had one last chance to get a bucket as the ball went out of bounds before the clock expired. But after a replay review, the ball was knocked out of bounds by guard Quante Berry. The Pirates were awarded the final possession and the Owls’ hopes were crushed.
Temple (9-6, 1-1 American Athletic Conference) narrowly fell to East Carolina (9-7, 1-2 AAC) 80-79 Wednesday night at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum in Greenville, North Carolina. The Owls led by as many as 10 points in the second half but were unable to close out the game
The Pirates started the night off with a second-chance three-pointer from guard Cam Hayes after guard Jordan Riley hauled in the offensive rebound. ECU entered the matchup with the third-best rebounding margin in the AAC but only recorded one more rebound in the first half than Temple, who ranks 10th.
From there, the score stayed close as both teams traded baskets. Stanford worked his way inside the arc and made a layup after guard Shane Dezonie stole the ball. However, looking to show up against his former team, Riley responded with a jumper and ECU found the spark it needed to break away.
Felton blocked a shot and forward C.J. Walker slammed down a dunk. Walker was fouled on the way up and completed the three-point play to give ECU the lead at 17-10. Dezonie responded to the five-point Pirate run by knocking down a three-pointer but ECU forward Trevion LaBeaux nailed his own shot from downtown to maintain the lead.
Both teams went dry after that, but the Owls were the first to break their scoreless period which lasted two minutes. Guard Jamal Mashburn Jr. drove in for a layup and Dezonie hit a three right after to cut their deficit to just two points at 20-18. Dezonie led the Owls in the first half with 11 points.
Temple tied the game at 20 with two made free throws from forward Elijah Gray after 12 minutes of play. The Owls took control of the game from there and kept ballooning their lead while the Pirates couldn’t shake their offensive slump. Temple took advantage of ECU’s nearly six-minute scoring drought and gained a seven-point lead behind a 14-0 run.
The Pirates started hot from the arc, shooting 4-5 to start the game but they missed their next five shots from downtown. Walker was the one to dig his team out of the slump with back-to-back shots in the paint to cut his squad’s deficit to just three with six minutes remaining until halftime.
The Owls stayed strong and pushed their way back to a nine-point lead at 41-32. ECU attempted to add more points to the board before the buzzer sounded but missed a three-pointer to enter halftime.
Mashburn showed up to open the second half by scoring seven straight points to give Temple a 10-point lead. ECU responded with multiple spurts which provided momentum for a Riley layup to bring the game within one point.
The Owls didn’t let up and held onto their lead until Woodard tied the score at 59 with two made free throws. Temple was fighting to keep its advantage and forward Steve Settle III stepped up and drained a three for his first points of the night. However, back-to-back dunks gave the Pirates their first lead of the half with eight minutes remaining to play.
The teams traded the lead but Settle knocked down another perfectly timed shot from beyond the arc. Two ECU free throws tied the game again but Temple kept the lead after Berry’s layup with five minutes to go.
Within the final 26 seconds, Felton and Woodard scored to clinch the victory. Felton led his team with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Walker and Woodard added 18 and 15 to the scoreboard, respectively. Five Owls scored in double figures with Mashburn’s 22 points carrying the weight.
Temple struggled to control the ball in the second half. The Owls recorded eight turnovers in the final 20 minutes after only having four in the first half. After taking the lead late, the Owls finished the game without a bucket from the field for nearly three minutes. The drought ended up being the nail in the coffin for the loss.
Temple will look to bounce back in conference play when they travel to Houston to face Rice (11-4, 2-0 AAC) on Jan. 11 at 2 p.m.
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