Vanderbilt vaults past Temple in overtime, 89-87

Temple won’t forget the name Ezra Manjon.

With mere seconds remaining in overtime, the Vanderbilt guard drained a pull-up jumper that put the Owls on the latter end of an 89-87 loss at the Liacouras Center.

It would be an 18-4 Commodores run in the second half that pulled this game into OT.

In overtime, Owls guard Damian Dunn drove the lane, earning the basket and the foul to give the Owls an 87-86 lead with 38.6 seconds remaining. The Commodores answered with Manjon, who sealed the win for Vandy with 22 seconds left.

“It hurts a lot, especially when we thought we had momentum coming in today after our big win on Friday [against Big 5 rival Villanova],” Dunn said. “How are we going to respond to it? We got to do a lot of rerouting and a lot of refocusing on what we take pride in and what we believe is most important.”

Dunn, who shot 13-of-18 from the floor, including seven three-pointers, for 38 points, scored the most points by a Temple player since David Hawkins scored 41 points in 2004 against UMass.

Guard Zach Hicks, who made one three-pointer in his first two games, made 6 of 13 shots from three-point range and went 2-of-2 from the free-throw line for 20 points. Vanderbilt’s offense was ignited by forward Myles Stute’s seven made three-pointers for 21 points.

The Owls struggled on offense, finishing 7-of-19 after the first 20 minutes. Guard Khalif Battle came off the bench for the third consecutive game and struggled to find his groove, making 0-of-5 first-half shots. Battle played just 19 minutes and finished with two points, having made both the free throws he attempted.

“I just played the guys who I felt wanted to be out there,” head coach Aaron McKie said.

Forward Jamille Reynolds also finished 7-of-11 for 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

The rest of Temple’s supporting cast did not step up. Guard Jahlil White fouled out, and sophomore Hysier Miller had just six points. Despite the close scoring affair, Temple shot inefficiently, going 29-of-61 from the field and 15-of-23 from the stripe.

Dunn made a three-point attempt to give the Owls an 85-83 lead at the 1:42 mark of overtime, but he missed a layup with 7 seconds left. Hicks received one more attempt that was blocked by the Commodores.

Temple travels to the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., to face Rutgers in the opening round of the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase on Friday(5 p.m., ESPNU).