Temple starts hot, goes cold, gets blown out by Clemson in men’s basketball
The Owls faded in the latter part of the first half and wound up falling to Clemson, 75-48, in the Shriners Chlldren's Charleston Classic in South Carolina.
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CHARLESTON, S.C. -- The last time the Temple men’s basketball team played in the Shiners Children’s Charleston Classic in 2017, the Owls won it. This time around, the Owls couldn’t find their rhythm and lost 75-48 to Clemson in an opening-round game at the TD Bank Arena.
Temple (1-2), coming off a 76-71 loss to Southern California at the Liacouras Center Nov. 13, couldn’t stage a second-half rally after they fell behind 38-26 at halftime
Temple will meet Boise State, a 67-61 loser to St. Bonaventure, Friday at noon in the second round of the tournament.
The Owls struggled with their shooting midway through the opening half and never recovered. As a result, they couldn’t maintain any consistency, and Clemson began to build its advantage, taking a 50-30 lead with 16 minutes, 10 seconds left in the game. The Tigers held a double-digit lead the rest of the way and cleared their bench.
The Owls shot just 35.8% from the field and 20% on three-point attempts. Clemson found its shooting touch late in the first half, and the Tigers continued to hit the mark in the second half as they shot 54.5% from the field 52.4% from three-point land.
Temple’s starters accounted for just 28 points, led by Damian Dunn’s 13 points. Khalif Battle, who had 26 against USC and entered the game as the American Athletic Conference’s second-leading scorer at 24 points per game, finished with just four and was saddled with three fouls.
Tai Strickland led the Owls with 16 points.
First-half meltdown
The Owls hit seven of their first 10 shots to stay within striking distance of the equally hot Tigers, who hit eight of their first 10, at 20-18 midway through the fist half. Strickland and Dunn each had five of the Owls’ first 18 points.
But Temple went cold over the last eight minutes of the half, as they managed to hit only three of their final 16 shots, missing their final nine from the field. In turn, Clemson responded with a 15-2 run and took a commanding 38-26 advantage at intermission.
Temple finished the half shooting 34.5%, while Clemson slipped slightly to 53.8%. However, they began to gather momentum late in the half from beyond the three-point arc, shooting 7-for-11 (63.6%). The Owls went 3-for-13 (23.1%).