Cincinnati rolls past Temple in second half


Cincinnati Bearcats forward Gary Clark (11) drives to the basket against Temple Owls forward Jaylen Bond (15) during the first half at Fifth Third Arena. (Aaron Doster/USA TODAY Sports)

Courtney Ratkowiak, For The Inquirer
Posted: Sunday, January 18, 2015, 3:01 AM

CINCINNATI - Thirty-three seconds into the second half of Temple's game at Cincinnati, the Bearcats' Octavius Ellis dunked emphatically.

The shot only put Temple down by 31-28, but from there the game was no contest. Cincinnati went on to make its next 10 shots and score 55 second-half points as the Temple defense collapsed in an 84-53 blowout at Fifth Third Arena.

The Owls (12-7, 3-3 American Athletic Conference) had held Cincinnati (12-5, 3-2) to 32 percent shooting in the first half, but allowed the Bearcats to shoot a staggering 77 percent in the second half.

Entering Saturday's game, Temple had only allowed 61.7 points per game.

"There were a couple of shots where I was saying to myself, 'All right, good, shoot that shot,' because I didn't think it could go in," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "And, sure enough, it did. They just made everything they took."

Josh Brown started his second game in place of injured guard Will Cummings. Without Cummings, who did not play, and his 12.9 points per game, other Owls needed to step up. Jesse Morgan and Obi Enechionyia tried, with a team-high 15 points and career-high 14 points, respectively.

Quenton DeCosey, however, was uncharacteristically quiet. DeCosey, who entered Saturday's game having scored in double figures in 16 of the Owls' 18 games, finished with just three points.

After missing their first six shots of the game, the Owls shot 10 of 15 from the field for the rest of the half and went into the locker room down by just 29-28.

"I thought we played about as good as we could play in the first half, and we did what we wanted to do defensively," Dunphy said. "I was pleased with where we were."

But Cincinnati started the second half with a 13-3 run while Temple starters Jaylen Bond and Devontae Watson both notched their third fouls, sending them to the bench. By the time the Bearcats missed their first second-half shot, Temple was down by 20 points.

"They tried to feed the post, and we were getting fouls, so that set us back," Bond said. "Once we got back into the game, we tried to find our rhythm, but by then, it was already too late."

The Owls shot 29 percent in the second half and trailed by as much as 35 points after halftime.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/coll..._half.html

UC clobbers Temple in season's biggest win
Tom Groeschen, tgroeschen@enquirer.com 9:43 p.m. EST January 17, 2015


Cincinnati forward Gary Clark (11) puts up a shot over Temple forward Devontae Watson (23). (Photo: Gary Landers, AP)

The Cincinnati Bearcats blitzed Temple with perfect 11-for-11 shooting to start the second half, as UC broke open a tight game and romped 84-53 on Saturday night at Fifth Third Arena.

A season-high home crowd of 12,071 enjoyed the onslaught, as UC pulled away from a 29-28 halftime lead. The 31-point final margin marked UC's largest victory this season, and the 84 points also were a season high.

Senior forward Jermaine Sanders led UC with a career high 16 points, and sophomore guard Kevin Johnson also hit a career best with 14 points.

Junior forward Octavius Ellis scored 13 points for UC, and freshman forward Gary Clark had 11 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore guard Troy Caupain had nine points and seven assists.

Senior guard Jesse Morgan led Temple with 15 points, and freshman forward Obi Enechionyia scored 14.

Sanders hit a 3-pointer to cap UC's run of 11-for-11 field goal shooting to open the second half. Sanders then missed one to drop UC to 11-for-12, but by then UC led 58-38.

UC kept on firing, and the Bearcats went 14-for-15 overall to start the half. UC finished 20-of-26 from the field after halftime (77 percent).

UC (12-5, 3-2 American Athletic Conference) emphatically snapped a two-game losing streak.

Temple (12-7, 3-3 AAC) lost its third straight game.

UC shot just 32 percent from the field before halftime, but the offensively challenged Bearcats suddenly morphed into multiple Sean Kilpatricks after halftime. (Kilpatrick, UC's No. 2 career scorer, averaged 20.6 points in his final UC season last year).

UC was coming off of a 63-50 loss at Memphis on Thursday, when the Bearcats had 20 turnovers and shot just 39 percent from the field.

UC is now 28-2 at Fifth Third Arena since the start of last season, including 10-1 this season. UC's biggest previous win this year was 26 points, 78-52 over Stony Brook on Dec. 2.

UC led 29-28 at halftime, despite shooting just 32 percent from the field. The Bearcats offset that somewhat by turning the ball over only twice before halftime, with eight turnovers overall for the night.

UC is now 5-3 since associate head coach Larry Davis took over Dec. 20 for head coach Mick Cronin, who was sidelined by persistent headaches. Medication and rest have Cronin feeling better recently.

UC announced Jan. 2 that Cronin would not coach practices or games for the rest of the season, but Cronin now hopes he could return to coaching games by March.

""You always have hope," Cronin said, less than 24 hours before Saturday's Temple game. "Hope keeps a lot of people going."

UC next plays the struggling Houston Cougars (7-10, 0-6 AAC) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Fifth Third Arena.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/c.../21833607/

Don't know what was said a halftime, but they looked like a totally different team. Like to see the same effort every game.

(01-20-2015 12:42 PM)mac6115cd Wrote:  Don't know what was said a halftime, but they looked like a totally different team. Like to see the same effort every game.

Larry Davis said in the postgame that all they talked about at halftime was defense. LOL. At least the coaches are consistent.

I was watching Sportscenter today on the Treadmill and noticed that Mormon made number 7 on the "not top ten" list for his attempted dunk against Temple.