After a tightly-contested first half, Temple finally started to pull away from Drexel after shots from guards Zion Stanford and Jamal Mashburn Jr. sparked a 6-2 scoring run in the second half, pushing the Owls’ lead up to a then-game-high nine points.
Drexel attempted to keep its deficit from getting too far out of hand but the Owls did not let up. Guard Quante Berry missed a layup attempt but forward Dillon Battie was there to grab the rebound and slam it down for a thunderous dunk.
Right after, Berry stole the ball and sprinted down the court to throw down a dunk of his own to electrify the home crowd. The Dragons started shooting and making threes and managed to cut their deficit to as little as three points, but Temple stayed persistent and held off Dexel to extend its win streak to three games.
Temple (3-0, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) defeated Drexel (2-1, 0-0 Coastal Athletic Association) 69-61 Tuesday night at The Liacouras Center. The Owls are now 1-0 in Big 5 play and are one step closer to returning to the Big 5 Championship on Dec. 7.
“I’m proud of our guys,” said head coach Adam Fisher. “I thought they really tried to stick to our game plan. We tried to take away their threes. We tried to guard them and then attack and try to get to the basket tonight.”
Stanford started the scoring for the night with 10 straight points. He was the only one in a Temple jersey to score for the first six minutes until forward Babatunde Durodola added to the scoreboard with a layup.
Stanford came off the bench in the season opener against Sacred Heart on Nov. 4 but has found himself in the starting lineup since. He entered the game with 12 points on the season and he more than doubled that Tuesday, finishing the night with a career-high 23 points.
“I’ll be honest, I’ve been really hard on Zion Stanford,” Fisher said. “I’ve been screaming at him in practice because I think he can be so good. He doesn’t talk back. He just is like, ‘gotcha, coach. I’ll be better. Let me work on this. Let me see that again.’ So I’m really proud of him. I thought he set the tone tonight.”
Mashburn, who has been Temple’s leading scorer in the first two games, struggled to open the game. He entered the game shooting 64% from the field but missed his first three shots against the Dragons and only contributed five points in the first half. He found a spark in the second half though and scored 15 points to help stave off Drexel.
Neither team could break away early on as they were going shot for shot, keeping the game tight. The game stayed within five points for the first 14 minutes until a three-point shot by Stanford gave the Owls a seven-point lead.
The Owls went on a scoring drought in the final five minutes of the opening half and the Dragons did not let up. Drexel had desperately tried to take the lead Temple but guard Matteo Picarelli drained a three with 37 seconds left and sent the Owls into halftime up 37-32.
Stanford continued his momentum and was the first to score in the second half. Forward Steve Settle III stole the ball right after to give the Owls another chance to break away. Temple went on a 6-2 run to give the Owls their biggest lead of the game thus far at 43-34.
“I just like going with the flow of the offense,” Stanford said. “I make my shots in practice. So I just know when I got certain opportunities, the ball in certain spots in the game, I know what shots I can put up, because we practice a lot and do the same things in practice.”
After jumping out in front by as much as 12, Drexel guard Kobe MaGee got two buckets from deep. Battie and Berry looked to set the tone for the remainder of the game and both dunked to push the score to 55-44. The Dragons decided to stay around the perimeter and recorded back-to-back threes to cut their deficit back to just five.
Temple found its momentum again with less than six minutes left in the game. Berry stole the ball and passed it down the court to Stanford who was waiting for a dunk so the Owls could go up by six points with the score at 61-55.
The Dragons stepped up their aggression in the final two minutes. Drexel made it difficult for Temple on the glass and drew back-to-back fouls on Durodola. The Dragons fouled twice themselves and sent Mashburn to the free-throw line. All four of his free throws fell and Temple cruised to the victory.
“We talk all the time. You got to be cool, calm and collective,” Fisher said. “We’re not going to try to get sped up. Credit to these guys. I think they did a really nice job late game of being under control, being cool, calm and collected.”
Temple will look to extend its winning streak to four and have its best start to a season since 2019 when they travel to face Boston College (1-1, 0-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.
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