Orlando FLA: The real season for college basketball begins with conference play and that is what we had on Wednesday night as the Temple Owls took on UCF Knights to open American Atheltic Conference play from CFE Arena in Orlando, Fla. Temple comes into the game with 10-2 record and off a win over Drexel on December 22 while their opponents the Knights have the same record at 10-2 and they enter battle with the owls off a win over Illinois State on December 21.
UCF won the tip and they would score the games first four points before the Owls got on the board with a basket by Quinton Rose to cut the lead to 4-2. The Knights would have an early 8 point lead and the owls would cut into it and took their first lead of the game at 16-15 with 12:46 left on a 3 pointer by Shizz Alston. Both teams would trade baskets and play good defense. The Knights would take a 37-28 lead into halftime.
In the Second half, The UCF Knights would pick up where they would leave off in the first half as they would get the lead up to 13 at 62-49 with 8:41 left. The Temple Owls would show that Philly fight that they would have and not go away and make the game very interesting the rest of the way. The Owls would get the lead down to 3 on three separate times with the last one being 3 pointer by Quinto Rose which cut the UCF lead to 76-73 with 9 seconds left. The Run by the owls would not be enough as the Knights would take this game 78-73.
Temple now falls to 10-3 on the season and will look for their first conference win as they take on Wichita State on January 6 at Wichita State and the Knights of UCF goes to 11-2 on the season and will look for back to back wins when they take on UConn on January 5.
Final numbers:
Temple Owls:
Nate Pierre-Louis: 21 points, 4 assists
Shizz Alston: 18 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists
Quinton Rose: 17 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists
UCF Knights:
BJ Taylor: 24 points, 2 assists
Tacko Fall: 16 points, 11 rebounds
Collin Smith: 12 points, 4 rebounds
Video:
Temple Coach Fran Dunphy:
Coach Fran Dunphy says he saw better offense but a few too many missed opportunities in @TUMBBHoops’ 78-73 loss to @UCF_MBB on Wednesday night. pic.twitter.com/MZCUhB4J8z
— OwlsDaily.com (@TempleOwlsDaily) January 3, 2019
