PHILADELPHIA—UCF twice fought back from double-digit second-half deficits, but the Knights couldn't quite muster enough firepower to regain the lead as Temple held on for a 62-55 victory Thursday afternoon at Liacouras Center on the Temple campus.
It was UCF's first game since a Jan. 2 road date at South Florida.
First, the Owls hit four consecutive three-pointers to run out to a 41-31 advantage six minutes into the second half. But, after missing their first seven field-goal attempts after intermission, UCF connected on six straight and cut the Temple edge to 43-42 on an Isaiah Adams layup at 10:45. From there, the Owls used an 8-0 run to push the lead back to 54-44 at the 5:44 stop after UCF missed six shots in a row.
The visitors hung in gamely, trailed only 58-55 and had the ball coming out of a timeout with 24.4 seconds to go. But Darin Green Jr., stepped on the sideline on the ensuing possession and Temple canned four straight free throws in the last 22 seconds to clinch it.
The victory was Temple's first in league play and its first overall since Dec. 19. UCF now has dropped three in a row and has not won since Dec. 22.
"Give Temple a lot of credit," said UCF coach Johnny Dawkins. "They outplayed us. It starts there. They executed well."
Adams, who came off the bench, and Green Jr. paced the Knights with 17 points each--with Adams notching a dozen after halftime in his first game back since Dec. 26.
"He (Adams) gave us a spark, quite frankly. He barely missed a beat," said Dawkins.
Redshirt freshman guard Damian Dunn, the leading Temple scorer this year, had a career-high 20 points.
UCF struggled shooting the basketball, finishing at a .328 clip. The Knights won the rebounding battle 39-37, led by 10 from Dre Fuller Jr. and eight by C.J. Walker.
Brandon Mahan remains the leading UCF scorer for the season, but the Owls limited him to a single field goal (on nine shots), four points and six assists.
"He has earned every team's best shot and he's just got to fight out of it," said Dawkins.
Louisville transfer Darius Perry did not play after scoring 23 points in his last outing.
"That hurts our chemistry," said Dawkins. "You're trying to get into a rhythm, into a flow, and it's just disjointed with the postponements and not playing. That's been difficult. He (Perry) gets into a rhythm and then he's out.
"But there's nothing anyone can do. It's a COVID year and we just have to keep fighting and work on the things we're struggling with and get better. There's still a long season ahead of us."
The teams played to a tie at 27 to end the opening half. The Knights connected on six of their 11 three-pointers (three by Green Jr. and two by Fuller Jr.) but missed 15 of their 18 two-point attempts. There were 12 lead changes, both teams led by as many as four at some point in the first 20 minutes and both teams benefited from 6-0 runs. Dunn had 11 of Temple's first-half points, while the trio of treys by Green Jr. paced UCF.
The game was a rare noon weekday tipoff after COVID issues pushed the contest a day later than originally scheduled.
Both teams have had their schedules heavily affected by the virus. UCF (3-4 overall, 1-3 AAC) played today for the first time since Jan. 2, while Temple (2-3, 1-3) has had six games either cancelled or postponed.
"The time off definitely affected our rhythm," said Dawkins. "It's too choppy. We had one-and-a-half practices the last 10 days or so. We're overdue for a stretch where we can play some games and not have these disruptions. We need to go out and compete and have some continuity. We've played two games since Dec. 26 and that's hard on everybody."
The Knights remain on the road to play 11th-ranked Houston (10-1) at 2 p.m. EST Sunday at Fertitta Center (ESPNU). The Cougars defeated UCF 63-54 Dec. 26 in Orlando.
