Temple hands No. 8 SMU its first loss
Devin Coleman shot from the left, the right, the middle of the court. None of it mattered Sunday to a startled Southern Methodist defense that could only put a hand in his face and hope.
Devin Coleman shot from the left, the right, the middle of the court. None of it mattered Sunday to a startled Southern Methodist defense that could only put a hand in his face and hope.
Both efforts were futile.
Coleman, who started the first 12 games but has thrived in his spark plug role off the bench since then, helped take down the NCAA's last unbeaten team with his marksmanship.
Coleman and his teammates were mobbed by the fans who braved the weather after Temple's 89-80 win over No. 8 SMU in an American Athletic Conference upset at the Liacouras Center.
A 6-foot-2 senior, Coleman scored a career-high 23 points, hitting all eight field-goal attempts, including seven from three-point range.
"When I thought I had an open look, I put it up there, and it went in," said Coleman, making it sound much simpler than it looked.
That tied a school record for best three-point performance in a game. Pepe Sanchez was 7 for 7 on Feb. 16, 1997, in an 85-82 loss at Rhode Island.
In handing Larry Brown's Mustangs their first loss, Temple (11-7, 5-2 AAC) clearly put itself in the NCAA picture, with admittedly much work left to do.
SMU (18-1, 7-1) is ineligible for the AAC and NCAA tournaments because of NCAA sanctions.
"Coleman was out of his mind," said Brown, the former 76ers coach.
Brown also took his team to task for its defense, feeling that too many of Coleman's shots weren't contested well enough.
"He was playing H-O-R-S-E," Brown said. ". . . We wanted him to put it down and make him go right, and once he got going he was unstoppable."
The fact that Coleman took only eight shots showed he wasn't forcing the issue.
"The key for me was playing within myself and trusting my teammates to find me and get me shots, and that is what I did today," said Coleman, who has averaged 13 points in the last six games as a reserve, three above his season average.
It was the third win over a top-25 team this season for Temple, which has won five of its last six.
Quenton DeCosey scored 19 points, and Dan Dingle added 14 points in 16 minutes off the bench for Temple. Sterling Brown led the Mustangs with 19 points.
Temple point guard Josh Brown did a good job on reigning AAC player of the year Nic Moore, holding the SMU senior to 10 points on 3-for-8 shooting, including 0 for 3 from beyond the arc.
The Mustangs like to pound the ball inside, a fact that was even more important since Owls leading rebounder and standout defender Jaylen Bond did not play because of a back injury.
SMU had trouble playing against Temple's smaller lineup. The Owls made 14 of 29 shots from beyond the arc, compared with 3 of 14 for SMU.
SMU cut a 12-point Temple lead to four points twice in the second half. Then, leading by 57-53, Temple expanded the margin to as many as 19 points.
Last season, Temple squandered double-digit leads in each of its three losses to SMU.
Last year, "we went through stretches where we didn't weather the storm against them," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "We had to weather the storm today."
That was an appropriate analogy in a game that was postponed a day by a blizzard. And one in which Temple's Coleman couldn't have been any hotter.
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