East Carolina University
8-8, 0-3
Temple
8-6, 3-1
Pirates Fall to Temple, 78-60
January 09, 2016 | Men's Basketball
PHILADELPHIA --- East Carolina dropped its third straight game to start American Athletic Conference play Saturday night with a 78-60 loss to Temple at the Liacouras Center.
The Pirates led by 11, 38-27, with 1:44 to play in the opening half and appeared to have all the momentum. However back-to-back 3-pointers by Devin Coleman, including one at the halftime buzzer, stole it from East Carolina and the Owls trailed only by five at halftime, 38-33.
Colemen's final two 3-pointers of the first half started a 15-0 Temple run that carried over into the first three minutes of the second half as Coleman hit a third straight 3 sandwiched between a pair of 3s by Quenton DeCosey for a 42-38 lead with ECU missing its first seven shots out of the locker room.
DeCosey led all scorers with a game-high 24 points on 8 of 13 shooting, including 5 of 8 outside the arc. Coleman also made five 3-pointers to finish with 17 points as the Owls made a season-high 13 3-pointers. Jaylen Bond grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
ECU senior Michael Zangari made a pair of free throws to tie the game at 50, but the Pirates never reclaimed the lead.
The Owls stretch out to a seven-point advantage before Zangari's bucket made it 59-54 with 7:41 remaining. A 3:46 East Carolina scoring drought followed as Temple ran off 12 unanswered points to blow the game open.
Prince Williams' layup ended the drought with 2:33 to play before Kentrell Barkley's 3-pointer put the final touches on the scoring with 30 seconds left.
The Pirates played one of their best halves of the season to start the game, shooting 59.3 percent from the field and nailing 6 of 9 3-pointers with 10 assists against only three turnovers. Clarence Williams scored 10 of his career-high 12 points prior to halftime, while Caleb White had 11 first half points and finished with 14.
Temple duplicated East Carolina's first half performance in the second 20 minutes as the Owls shots 58.6 percent and made 8 of 17 3-pointers, while the Pirates made just 8 of 26 shots and were only 2 of 7 outside the arc with three times as many turnovers (6) as assists (2).
East Carolina returns home to face No. 15 SMU on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 6:15 p.m. inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.
