Temple University Athletics
Temple University
2-0
Rice
1-2
Temple Hoots Louder; Defeats Rice In 'Battle of the Owls', 77-63
11.17.12 | Men's Basketball
PHILADELPHIA – Returning to a “new look” Liacouras Center for its 2012-13 home opener, Temple (2-0) hooted louder in what was a “Battle of the Owls”, by defeating Rice, 77-63. Guiding the home Owls to their second straight win to start the season was senior guard Scootie Randall and sophomore Anthony Lee, as both scored 16 points and notched first career double-doubles. Lee finished with a game and career high 13 rebounds, while Randall hauled down 12 boards of his own. Senior forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson also played a key offensive role by scoring a game-high 18 points on an 8-of-10 shooting night.
The Cherry and White never trailed in the contest, but never really led comfortably as the visitors from Houston hung tough the entire 40 minutes.
Temple opened a 16-5 lead after the first seven minutes as Hollis-Jefferson scored six of his points in the stretch. Rice utilized a 15-5 run to knot the score at 25, the third and final tie of the game, with 6:13 left in the half.
A Khalif Wyatt (17 pts) trey broke the tie, but the host Owls were unable to get space the remainder of the half and took a 34-31 lead into the locker room.
The game remained close throughout the first 10 minutes of the second half until TU ran off eight unanswered points, the final three by Wyatt, to take a 58-49 lead with 7:32 remaining.
Rice cut the lead to six twice, the last at 60-54 on free throws by Keith Washington (12 pts), before Jake O'Brien drained a three-pointer with 5:16 left to make it 63-54. It marked the first points off the bench in the contest for Temple.
Randall added two free throws to extend the margin to 11 and Temple kept the margin at eight points or above the remainder of the game.
After shooting 52.9 percent in its opener at Kent State, Temple made just 41.3 percent in the friendly confines of the Liacouras Center, which sported a brand new state-of-the-art videoboard. TU struggled even more from long range, hitting a mere 15.4 percent (4-26) from behind the arc.
Lee (6-8 FGs) and Hollis-Jefferson (8-10 FGs) were on-target, however, while Wyatt found the wide open shooters with a game-high six assists.
Senior guard Tamir Jackson led Rice (1-2) with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
Temple improves to 2-0 on the young season and will now set its sights towards its matchup a week away when it hosts Delaware on Sunday, Nov. 25 at the Liacouras Center (2:00 p.m./OwlAccess/1210 AM WPHT).
