The last time the Owls played they reached a benchmark that no team had reached against Cincinnati in 28 games, as Temple avenged its most recent loss by taking down the Bearcats 75-59 on Tuesday night. Temple ended Cincinnati's streak of holding opponents to under 70, which had been the longest active streak in NCAA Division I. On Saturday, Temple faced the East Carolina Pirates who have won two in a row and three of their last four. The Owls managed to pull down 49 rebounds, 16 of which came from Jaylen Bond , as they defeated East Carolina 66-53 for their seventh consecutive win.
For the second game in a row Temple's leading scorer was Senior Will Cummings. Cummings finished the game with 17 points and went a perfect 7/7 from the free throw line. Junior forward Jaylen Bond had a monster game on the glass for the Owls as he finished with a game-high 16 rebounds. Bond said that he saw something on film before Saturday’s game against East Carolina that suggested the middle of the paint would be open, and that he would be able to dominate the glass.
"I knew it was going to be tough for them to keep me off the glass with the zone they were playing,” Bond said. “I was trying to find my spots and crash the glass hard. I was able to get some easy rebounds and hard ones.”
Temple's 49 rebounds were just one shy of their season-high, and the Owls finished with a 19-2 advantage in second-chance points with 18 offensive rebounds to East Carolina's five.
As for the Pirates, they were led by Terry Whisnant who finished the contest with 13 points on 5/13 shooting. East Carolina made 7 of 15 3-pointers after halftime, scoring 12 straight points on 3's at one point. The Pirates managed to hold Temple to just 36.8 percent shooting, but were out-rebounded 49-26 with the Owls pulling down 18 offensive boards.
Temple was able to take an early lead in the first half and hold it thanks to a 30-10 rebounding advantage. East Carolina came within six points at the eight minute mark, but Temple took control from that point.The Owls closed out the first half on a 10-1 run to lead 34-18 at the break.
Temple built its lead to as many as 18 in the second half, and never let the Pirates come within 11. Will Cummings led Temple in the second half as he scored 13 second-half points. The Owls didn't score in the final 4:20, but just five points from East Carolina wasn't enough to close the deficit.
The win gives Temple its 19th on the year, and they are 10-3 in the AAC. East Carolina falls to 11-14 and they are 4-8 in conference play. Temple's next game will be against a tough SMU team on 2/19. East Carolina's next contest will be against Tulsa on 2/18.