Temple Beats East Carolina in AAC Matchup
March 05, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Game Report
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Game Highlights
From wire and staff reports
GREENVILLE, N.C. --- Will Cummings scored 16 points and added seven rebounds, six assists, and four steals to help lead Temple to a 70-56 win over East Carolina on Thursday night, in a game that was delayed for several minutes before tip-off due to stadium lighting issues.
Quenton DeCosey and Josh Brown each scored 11 points for the Owls (21-9, 12-5 American Athletic Conference), who have won nine of their last 11 and are tied with Cincinnati for third place in the conference standings. Temple's 21 total wins is 12 more than it had in 2013-14, the third largest turnaround in the nation.
"We lost to a really outstanding basketball team, an NCAA tournament team, tonight," ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo said. "They are not flash but they are solid in every aspect of the game. They can rebound, defend, share the ball, don't turn the ball over and they play their game without saying a word."
Caleb White led East Carolina (13-17, 6-11) with 13 points and seven rebounds. Terry Whisnant added nine points, while Michel Nzege and B.J. Tyson scored eight apiece.
The Pirates started the game by hitting five of its first seven shots and rushed out to an 11-3 lead in the first 2:44 behind 3-pointers from Paris Roberts-Campbell, Marshall Guilmette and Whisnant. During the final 17 minutes of the opening half, the Pirates made just 7-of-19 (.368) while Temple made 14-of-21 (.667) after missing seven of its first eight attempts.
Temple put together 16-4 late in the period, capped off by a Devin Coleman 3-pointer, and led 41-33 at the half.
The Owls stretched their lead to 12 in the opening four minutes of the second half, but the Pirates got within five with 13:10 to play. Temple responded with a 14-5 run to push the lead to 14 with 3:08 to play.
"We couldn't get balls to go down consistently for us in the second half," Lebo said. "We had a chance where we missed three open 3s that would of made a difference for us in this game."
Despite holding Temple to 33.3 percent shooting in second half, the Pirates were unable to capitalize as they shot just 36 percent themselves, including 28.6 percent (2-of-7) from 3.
Both teams finished the game shooting 41 percent, but the Owls were able to score 12 second chance points off 16 offensive rebounds.












