Temple falls at home to Dayton, 87-77
This was a classic letdown possibility, and Temple couldn't avoid it. The Owls were the toast of Philadelphia after upsetting fifth-ranked Duke just a few days ago, and their Atlantic Ten opener against Dayton was supposed to validate that win.
This was a classic letdown possibility, and Temple couldn't avoid it.
The Owls were the toast of Philadelphia after upsetting fifth-ranked Duke just a few days ago, and their Atlantic Ten opener against Dayton was supposed to validate that win.
So what happened?
Sparked by a 16-2 second-half run, Dayton prevailed, 87-77, Saturday at the Liacouras Center, snapping the Owls' school-record, 25-game home winning streak.
Temple (10-4, 0-1 A-10) lost despite having two seemingly comfortable leads against a Dayton (12-4, 2-0) team that had been winless on the road.
Surely, there had to be some sort of hangover, loss of focus or overconfidence after beating Duke Wednesday, right?
"There may be some leftover residue from the win the other night," said coach Fran Dunphy, whose Owls suffered their first home loss since an 84-52 setback to Kansas on Jan. 2, 2010. "But if you're a player, you have to get that out of your mind."
Temple guard Khalif Wyatt said he believes the Owls were over beating the Blue Devils.
"Nah, practice was good the past few days," said Wyatt, who finished with a career-high 28 points on 5-of-10 three-point shooting. "Everybody seemed like they had Duke behind them. Dayton just came in here ready to go."
As a result, the Owls kept blowing leads. The last one came after Wyatt hit two foul shots to give Temple a 60-55 lead with 8 minutes, 35 seconds remaining.
Thanks to Temple's missing four of its next five field-goal attempts, Dayton went on the decisive 16-2 run to take a 71-62 lead with 4:10 left.
"We were up eight in the first half, and we let them come back," Temple point guard Juan Fernandez said. "We were up six in the second half, and we let them come back."
That's because, after taking the 55-49 lead, senior guard Ramone Moore missed two foul shots and a pair of jumpers that could have broken the game wide open.
In the first half, the Owls led, 28-20, after Anthony Lee's dunk with 6:26 left.
"And I made a substitution to get our starters [guard Moore and Fernandez] back in," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "We did a poor job from that point on."
The Owls missed eight of their final nine shots of the half, as Dayton took 31-30 lead.
"Now, it is going to be tough going at St. Louis and at Richmond," Fernandez said of the Owls' next two conference games. "You can't relax. We don't have anything guaranteed to us because of beating Duke."
