Temple has struggled all season due to its smaller, guard-heavy roster and looked to combat those shortcomings Saturday night by giving more minutes to their forwards and bigger guards to slow down Villanova in the paint.
Instead, Villanova took advantage of an open perimeter and began draining three-pointers. The Wildcats sank 19 shots from three-point range on 63% shooting which the Owls had no answer for.
Temple shot just 37% with a chance to claim third place in the Big 5 Classic. The Owls found themselves down by 11 in the blink of an eye and never recovered. When the dust settled the Wildcats handed its Big 5 rival a 29-point loss and Temple dropped its second straight game.
“Going into it, we wanted to take away their threes,” said head coach Adam Fisher. “Over 50% of their shot attempts come from three. They made shots. We didn’t execute.”
Temple (4-4, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) was unable to keep up with Villanova (6-4, 0-0 Big East) in a 94-65 loss Saturday evening at the Wells Fargo Center to officially place fourth in the Big 5 Classic. The Wildcats’ 19 three pointers were the most Temple has allowed in a game since Feb. 16, 2020, when it gave up 17 threes, also to Villanova.
Villanova started the scoring with star forward Eric Dixon, the second leading scorer in the country averaging 25.9 points per game. Saturday was no different for the graduate student as he scored 11 of the Wildcats’ first 15 points.
Temple forward Steve Settle III responded right away to even the score but the Wildcats ran away from there, scoring the next seven points. Forward Enoch Boakye blocked a shot from Temple guard Shane Dezonie and finished the play with a fast break dunk.
Guard Jameel Brown grabbed a rebound but was unable to maintain control as the ball found its way to Dixon who was wide open for a three-pointer. Dixon easily made the shot and made another one from beyond the arc on the next possession to extend the Wildcats’ lead to 11 with the score at 15-4.
“There’s a lot of ‘my bads’ right now,” Fisher said. “We got to eliminate the ‘my bads.’ We got to communicate a little bit more on the defensive end and play harder.”
Guard Jamal Mashburn Jr. has been the Owls’ leading scorer in every game but one this year. He missed his first four shots but finally sunk a jumper seven minutes into the game and finished the night with 20 points.
The Owls knew they needed to be strong in the paint in order to pull off an upset and Fisher looked to his bench to find height. Forwards Elijah Gray, Dillon Battie and guard Aiden Tobiason, who stands at 6-foot 5-inches, were subbed in to try and find a matchup for the 6-foot, 8-inch Dixon. The change seemingly worked in the Owls’ favor.
Dixon went relatively quiet after starting scorching hot. He scored just two points for the rest of the half, but Temple was unable to climb back into the game. Instead, it left the door open for the Wildcats’ supporting cast to help stretch the lead and they did just that.
Wildcat guard Tyler Perkins began to gain steam and grew his team’s lead to 12 with a wide-open three-pointer. Villanova dominated behind the arc, shooting 57% in the first half. Perkins did the most damage, connecting on all three of his attempts in the first half.
Temple looked like it had finally found momentum midway through the first half. The Owls created more offensive opportunities and went on a six point run with deep shots from Mashburn and Settle. Temple cut its deficit to six points with nine minutes remaining until halftime but were never able to get any closer.
Villanova continued to balloon its lead and ended the half on a 12-6 run. Guard Wooga Poplar grabbed the rebound off a Temple miss and took the ball all 94-feet to slam a dunk home as the clock was expiring. The Wildcats pushed their lead to 45-29 entering the locker room.
“I thought the ball got sticky for us by multiple guys trying to go one-on-one,” Fisher said. “We got to move the ball. I thought when we moved the basketball and made them play on second and third side, we were able to get better things and get drives.”
Temple recorded one more offensive rebound than Villanova but showed its season-long struggles on the glass on the defensive end, getting outrebounded 15-8 in the first half.
Looking to get back into the game, guard Zion Stanford opened the second half by scoring the first seven Temple points. However, the Wildcats didn’t let up and answered each one of Stanford’s shots with a three-pointer.
Temple went silent for nearly three minutes as the Wildcats pushed their lead to 25 at 70-45. Gray ended the scoring drought for the Owls with two free throws and followed it up with a layup.
Tobiason gave Temple a spark, getting more minutes with guard Quante Berry out with a hand injury. Tobiason consistently gave his team more chances to claw their way back into the game by recording five of Temple’s eight steals. Three of his steals came in the second half but the game was already too far out of reach.
“We’re gonna play guys that are gonna play hard and compete,” Fisher said. “And [Aiden Tobiason] did that. He earned every minute he played tonight.”
Temple will be back in action when it takes on Division II Holy Family (5-3, 0-1 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference) on Dec. 10 at 7 p.m.
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