Temple lit up the free-throw line en route to a 73-58 conference win over East Carolina

The goal was to extend its win streak over East Carolina to four games. Temple did that following a 73-58 American Athletic Conference win over the Pirates at the Liacouras Center on Wednesday.

With the win, Temple prevents UCF (13-5, 4-2 AAC) and Memphis (13-5, 3-2), which topped the Owls on a buzzer-beater Sunday, from overtaking it in the conference. The top five seeds in the AAC earn first-round byes in the conference tournament.

Like the first meeting between these teams on Dec. 28, the Owls (11-9, 5-2) were outrebounded but relied on other facets of their defense for the win, and pushing the tempo whenever possible.

Temple’s Damian Dunn got back to his strength, finishing with a game-high 22 points through a mix of driving the lane, causing fouls, and being efficient from the line, hitting 16 of 18 from the stripe. He’s averaged nearly 27 points against the Pirates over the last two seasons.

“It’s home,” Dunn said. “I grew up 30 minutes from [ECU’s] campus, so it’s something I really took personally being that they didn’t offer me [a scholarship] until two weeks before I came here.”

The Owls also got their best performance out of center Kur Jonguch. The graduate transfer from Northern Colorado averages just 1.5 points, but had seven against the Pirates (10-10, 1-6 AAC).

The interior play team-wide led to 31 free throws, with the Owls making 26.

“Every game we go into, I always talk to those guys about attacking the paint and getting to the free-throw line,” Temple coach Aaron McKie said. “It’s how you want to control a basketball game.”

Khalif Battle added 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting for the Owls. For ECU, guards Quenton Diboundje (14 points) and RJ Felton (11 points) led the way.

Forward Brandon Johnson hauled in a game-high 11 rebounds for the Pirates while Temple point guard Hysier Miller chimed in with three steals, also a game-high.

Temple struggled early in the first half, scoring just five points in the first seven minutes. A flagrant foul on sophomore forward Nick Jourdain fueled a 13-3 ECU run to put the Pirates ahead 15-5 with 13 minutes, 24 seconds remaining in the first half. The Owls missed 11 of their first 12 shot.

After a timeout, the Owls used a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 21-19. However, a putback dunk by Felton halted the momentum.

Temple finally came back and took its largest lead of the night at 56-46 with 9:27 left to play behind a 14-0 run. The Owls avoided an injury scare to Dunn, who was on the receiving end of a flagrant foul after being knocked out of the air on a dunk.

“I said to the guys at halftime, ‘We played more like a team that was fighting to be at the bottom moreso than being at the top of the conference,’” McKie said.

Temple’s heads to No. 1 Houston (18-1, 6-0 AAC) at 3 p.m. Sunday on ESPN. The Cougars swept Temple last season.