DeCosey’s Career-High 30 Points Leads Men’s Basketball Past USF

Sunday, January 31

Tampa. Fla.

2:00 p.m.

Temple University

12-8 (6-3)

USF

5-18 (2-8)

Temple

USF

Photo by: Steve Gotter

DeCosey’s Career-High 30 Points Leads Men’s Basketball Past USF

1.31.16 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

TAMPA – Senior guard Quenton DeCosey was a one-man wrecking crew, scoring a career-high 30 points to lead Temple to a 70-63 win over USF Sunday afternoon at the Sun Dome. The win was also the 205th for head coach Fran Dunphy in his decade at the school, tying him with James Usilton, Sr. (1926-39) for third on the TU all-time coaching win list. Only Hall of Fame coaches John Chaney (516, 1982-06) and Harry Litwack (373, 1952-73) have more victories at the school.

Temple improves to 12-8 overall and is in a three-way tie for second place in the American Athletic Conference standings at 6-3. USF, which entered the game on a two-game road win streak, falls to 5-18, 2-8.

Impressive from the start, DeCosey tallied 20 first-half points on five of six shooting from the field (3-4 from 3pt range) to give Temple a 35-31 lead at the break. The Owls led for the first 14 minutes of the game, before senior guard Nehemias Morillo scored five straight to give the Bulls a 23-20 advantage.

DeCosey was then fouled on a three, and made all of his free throws to tie the game. Freshman guard Jahmal McMurray (14 points) converted a four-point play on the ensuing possession to give USF its largest lead of the game, 27-23. Again fouled from long range, DeCosey, who made seven of nine from the line in the first half, made another three from the charity stripe to cut the deficit to one,

Senior forward Jaylen Bond (8 points), who came off the bench for his first action in three games, scored underneath on an assist by freshman guard Trey Lowe to put the Owls back in front. Lowe (11 points, 3 assists) then followed that with a steal and dunk on the inbounds pass. Lowe was fouled on the play and hit his free throw to make it 31-27.

Holding a 35-31 lead, the Owls scored 12 of the first 16 points to build a 47-35 lead over the first five minutes of the second half. Temple would improve its lead to 15, 52-27, with just over 13 to play. Sophomore forward Obi Enechionyia scored eight of his 13 points during this stretch,

The offense then went cold as the Owls scored just two points over the next six minutes as USF whittled the deficit to single digits on a 10-2 run.

Junior guard Josh Brown hit a three from the top of the key to end the drought and put TU ahead 57-47 with 7:07 remaining.

Both teams struggled to score over the next four minutes before USF rattled off four points to close the gap to five (61-56), its lowest deficit since the opening minute of the period, with 2:30 left on a layup by senior forward Angel Nunez (16 points, 8 rebounds).

Senior guard Devin Coleman, who struggled from the field, made his lone basket, a three-pointer to give the Owls some breathing room at 64-56.

Another layup by Nunez made it a six-point game with just under a minute to play, but that would be as close as USF would come as DeCosey made five of six from the line to close out the victory.

In all, DeCosey made a career-high 14 free throws on 17 attempts. The 14 free throws made ties for eight on the Temple single-game list.

Temple made 21-of-52 from the field (40.4%) for just its eighth game shooting over 40 percent. The Owls are a perfect 8-0 when that happens. The team is now 6-1 when DeCosey scores 20 or more points.
The Owls, who entered play fourth in fewest turnovers, tied a season-low with five, marking the 11th time that TU has posted single-digit miscues.

Temple returns home for a Thursday night (7:00 pm/ESPNU/1210 AM WPHT) clash with Tulsa (14-7, 6-3).

Box Score (PDF) | Video Highlights