“Tournament-or-bust” Owls add bad loss to their resume to start the season

Written by: Declan Landis

Photo by: Brian Mermelstein

Despite labeling this season as “tournament-or-bust”, Temple Men’s Basketball blew a 15-point lead on Monday night to lose its season opener to Wagner 76-73 in overtime.

The comeback started with less than seven minutes to play in regulation. The Owls, who had been inconsistent for much of the night, could not score. Wagner continued to chip away at the lead without a response. As graduate forward Jahbril Price-Noel’s wide-open 3-pointer fell with three seconds left in regulation, the energy in the Liacouras Center seemed to drain instantly as the comeback completed.

Overtime continued that trend for Temple. They did not score a field goal in the five minutes of bonus time. However, junior guard Rahmir Moore scored a second-chance layup with 1:42 left in the period which put the Seahawks ahead for good.

“I just thought they outworked us,” head coach Aaron McKie said postgame. “I thought they made incredible plates down the stretch that they needed to make to win the game. We were out of sorts.”

Despite the loss, two performances stood out for the Owls for much of the game. Damian Dunn had 29 points and tied the school record for free throws made without a miss with 18 consecutive. At times, he was the only Owl that could score and kept Temple ahead for most of the game. 

Fellow guard Khalif Battle, in his first game back from tearing the fifth metatarsal in his left foot against La Salle on Dec. 1, 2021, struggled in the first half but bounced back in the second, scoring 13 of his 16 points after the first 20 minutes of play. Battle came off the bench, a role he had not played all of last season.

“I missed a year of basketball,” Battle said. “Of course, I’m going to lean on this guy next to me [Dunn], but I’ve got to do a better job helping out because he can’t be the only guy going out there and doing that.”

Temple struggled defensively for most of the game. Four players got into foul trouble throughout the game, including sophomore guard Jahlil White who fouled out during the overtime period. Communication was also an issue for the team, which was clear when no one rotated to defend Price-Noel’s game-tying shot.

“We practice those things all the time,” McKie said. “We talked about guarding the three-point line. They just got some open threes, and we didn’t communicate on the one that tied it up. Just a number of odd things that happened.”

Temple now needs to bounce back quickly as they face No. 16 Villanova at home Friday at 7 pm. According to Battle, all the team can do is look ahead to Friday and play better.

“I’m not worried about the one game,” Battle said. “It shouldn’t have happened, but you can’t change the past. All we can do is look ahead and get ready for Villanova and the rest of the season.”