Temple men’s basketball wins first game despite rebounding struggles

The Owls lost the rebounding battle by seven but were able to defeat the Dragons 70-62 on Tuesday night.

Junior guard Nate Pierre-Louis runs with the ball during the Owls' season home-opener against Drexel at the Liacouras Center on Nov. 5. | JUSTIN OAKES / THE TEMPLE NEWS

With 12 minutes, 40 seconds remaining in the game, junior guard Nate Pierre-Louis rebounded the ball and passed to redshirt-junior guard Monty Scott who scored a layup in transition, putting the Owls ahead 42-40. 

Temple University men’s basketball (1-0) defeated Drexel (0-1), 70-62, at home in the team’s first game of the season on Tuesday night. 

Despite the eight-point victory, the Owls struggled to rebound the basketball. The Dragons outrebounded the Owls 46-39. 

“I firmly believe, if we do a better job of taking care of the ball, we do a better job of rebounding, rebounding the ball, I think we would have been in much better shape,” coach Aaron McKie said. 

Pierre-Louis led Temple with 10 rebounds per night. The Dragons’ leading rebounder was junior forward James Butler who compiled 15 rebounds per night. 

“We’ve just gotta box out,” Pierre-Louis said. “We’re gonna look at the film, we’re going to get better from it, we’ll look at film and coach is gonna tell us what we have to do.”

The Dragons recorded double the amount of offensive rebounds than the Owls, allowing them to win the second chance point battle 12-9. 

One of the Dragons’ offensive rebounds came with 14 minutes and 21 seconds remaining in the second half when Dragons sophomore guard Camren Wynter out jumped the Owls’ defense for the rebound. 

Wynter then dribbled the ball outside the paint and made a mid-range jump shot, putting the Dragons ahead 40-38. 

Senior center Damion Moore finished the game with just six rebounds which put him second on the team. Three Owls players finished with five rebounds in the game: senior guard Alani Moore II, junior forward J.P. Moorman II and junior center Justyn Hamilton. 

”I took it every bit personally,” Moorman II said. “We failed. We failed in that department and that’s not going to take us where we want to go. We’ve got big goals, big aspirations.”

Temple’s next game is at home against Morgan State University on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 2 p.m.

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