Strong second half pushes Temple past La Salle in Big 5 matchup at Palestra

Aaron McKie called it “unsettling.” Fran Dunphy said he didn’t like it.

“I don’t want to coach against Aaron McKie ... because I’m rooting for him like crazy,” Dunphy said. “Obviously I wasn’t rooting for him tonight.”

The first game of the first true Big 5 doubleheader at the Palestra in six years offered enough intrigue on the sidelines to make it interesting before the ball was tipped.

It was Dunphy, a La Salle grad coaching his third Big 5 team, manning the Explorers’ bench and McKie, who played at Temple and coached there under Dunphy for five seasons, leading the Owls’ bench.

For a while Wednesday night, it looked like the mentor would get the best of the mentee.

But Temple shook off a slow start, dominated the second half, and came away with a much-needed 67-51 win. The Owls have won two straight after snapping a two-game losing streak and are back at .500 at 4-4.

“We both said it after the game, we were glad it was over,” McKie said.

Temple’s Khalif Battle led all scorers with 22 points (4 of 8 from three-point range), 17 of which came in the second half. Damian Dunn added 17 for the Owls while adding six rebounds and six assists. Jamille Reynolds scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

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La Salle was led by Khalil Brantley’s 14 points. Rokas Jocius joined him in double figures with 11. Josh Nickelberry, La Salle’s leading scorer entering Wednesday, was held to just three points on 1-of-7 shooting.

If sloppy basketball is your thing, the first half must have been a treat. The teams combined for 16 turnovers (eight apiece) and 3-for-19 shooting from three-point range (15.8%).

La Salle (3-4) had an eight-minute scoring drought. Temple had just two assists and eight made baskets.

The trajectory of a back-and-forth half with five ties and six lead changes was changed by La Salle’s backup big man, Jocius, who scored six straight late in the half for the Explorers and eight of their last 13 points in the half. La Salle used an 11-2 run over the final four minutes of the half to take a 29-21 lead into the break.

Temple’s 21 points equaled the Owls’ lowest-scoring half of the season (first half vs. Richmond, Nov. 22).

“I just thought we were completely flat to start the game,” McKie said. “I was trying to find ways to put combinations together to give us some juice.”

Game of runs, they say.

It was all Temple out of the halftime break. The Owls — behind strong Battle drives to the rim, a corner triple from Zach Hicks, a nifty dribble move and jumper from Dunn, and a Battle three-pointer — scored 13 of the first 15 points in the second half to take the lead, 34-33.

Temple’s runs didn’t stop there, even after Battle went to the bench with 10 minutes, 21 seconds left after picking up his fourth foul.

The Owls kept rolling without him. Dunn hit a tough fall-away baseline jumper to cap a 12-1 run and give Temple a 51-45 lead with 7:10 to go.

Hicks hit what felt like the biggest shot of the game, a wing three-pointer with a hand in his face to bump the Temple lead to eight with 5:22 on the clock.

“The basket was looking big,” said Hicks, who was 3-for-5 from the arc.

“He made a few threes that were backbreakers,” Dunphy said of Hicks.

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Nick Jourdain then scored four straight for Temple and the lead was 12 with more than four minutes to play. La Salle never cut the deficit closer than nine again. The Explorers scored just seven points in the final 10 minutes.

Temple, after a poor shooting effort in the first half, was 6-for-11 from beyond the arc in the second half.

“We couldn’t score and they were terrific,” Dunphy said.

Temple hosts Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday at the Liacouras Center (1 p.m., ESPNU).

La Salle is back at the Palestra on Saturday for a game vs. Penn (2 p.m., ESPN+).