Big 5 Showdown Sunday as Men's Basketball Hosts Saint Joseph's

PHILADELPHIA - The most played series in the history of the Philadelphia Big 5 will be renewed Sunday when Temple men's basketball (4-4, 1-0 Big 5) hosts rival Saint Joseph's (6-2, 0-1) at the Liacouras Center. Tip time is 4:00 p.m. with the game being televised live by CBS Sports Network and broadcast by 1210 AM WPHT.

HEADLINES
• Temple is playing its second-straight Philadelphia Big 5 contest, and is 1-0 so far after holding off Penn for a 77-73 road win on Wednesday night. The Owls are looking to avenge last year's narrow 58-56 loss at Saint Joseph's.
• Senior Quenton DeCosey scored a game-high 22 points at Penn, while senior Jaylen Bond recorded his second-straight double-double with 12 points to go with a game-high 10 rebounds.
• Sophomore Josh Brown dished a career-high nine assists at Penn, and hit 4-of-4 free throws in the final seconds to seal the victory for Temple after a furious rally by the Quakers.
• The Owls had won back-to-back home games over Delaware and Fairleigh Dickinson before suffering a 76-60 loss at 2015 NCAA runner-up Wisconsin in their first true road game of the season on Dec. 5.
• Temple's only other three losses this season have been to teams ranked in the Top 25. This season marked the first time in program history the Owls had faced three ranked teams in their first four games.
• DeCosey is Temple's leading scorer this season with 14.8 points per game, ranking seventh in the American Athletic Conference, and has scored in double figures in seven of eight contests.
• DeCosey is the 51st player in program history to score 1,000 points, surpassing the mark in a win vs. Minnesota on Nov. 19. He has now scored 1,105 career points.
• As a team, the Owls are second in the nation in fewest turnovers per game at 8.8. They have only reached double digits in turnovers three times and have recorded as few as five (vs. Delaware on 11/29).
• Bond leads the team and ranks eighth in the American Athletic Conference with 7.8 rebounds per game.
• Saint Joseph's is off to a strong 6-2 start this season and is coming off back-to-back wins over Columbia and Princeton. Senior Isaiah Miles and junior DeAndre' Bembry lead the team with 15.9 and 15.8 points per game, respectively, and both lead the Hawks with 7.1 rebounds per game.
• The Hawks' lone Big 5 game so far was an 86-72 home loss to nationally-ranked Villanova on December 1.

Series History
• Temple and Saint Joseph's will be meeting for the 158th time, which is the most meetings between two Philadelphia Big 5 teams. The Owls' 89 wins are most against any opponent.
• This marks the third season in which the teams will not compete in the same conference after 67 years of doing so. Temple and SJU were members of the Middle Atlantic Conference from 1946-47 until 1973-74 when both left to become members of the East Coast Conference. Following the 1981-82 season, both joined the Atlantic 10 Conference. The Owls became a full member of the American Athletic Conference on July 1, 2013.
• Saint Joseph's narrowly won last season's meeting, 58-56 at Hagan Arena on Dec. 3, 2014. The Owls' last win was the year prior, 77-69 at the Liacouras Center on Dec. 4, 2013.
• The Hawks had won two straight prior to 2013-14, both coming at Hagan Arena, after dropping 10 straight to the Owls.

Assistance From Brown
Junior point guard Josh Brown has reset his career high in assists twice in the last three games. In the Owls' win at Penn on Dec. 9, he dished a career-high nine assists while recording just a single turnover. Brown currently ranks second in The American in both assists per game (5.0) and assist/turnover ratio (3.6).

Accepting Charity
As a team, Temple is currently leading the American Athletic Conference in free throw percentage at .748. The Owls have shot over 80 percent at the line three times this season, including twice in the last three games. Their best performances so far saw them hit 8-of-9 (.889) vs. #22/20 Butler (Nov. 20) and 25-of-28 (.893) in a win vs. FDU (12/2). Individually, senior Quenton DeCosey leads the team and ranks in a tie for second in the conference, having hit 28-of-32 free throws (.875).

Bond Doubling Up
Senior forward Jaylen Bond notched five double-doubles for Temple last season, and has recorded three already in the first eight games of 2015. Bond put up back-to-back double-doubles in the last two games, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 rebounds at both Wisconsin and Penn. His 11.4 points per game rank 22nd in The American, while his 7.8 rebounds per game rank eighth.

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Big 5 Showdown Sunday as Men's Basketball Hosts Saint Joseph's

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Players Mentioned

Jaylen Bond

Josh Brown

Quenton DeCosey

Temple University Athletics