Temple out-shoots DePaul, 73 to 65

MIAMI -- Josh Brown was maybe a little too excited for his first start of the season.

Fifteen seconds into Temple's game against DePaul, the Owls senior guard left his feet to contest a jumper by Blue Demons senior Billy Garrett Jr., drawing a foul.

The one free throw Garrett knocked down at that point ended up being the Blue Demons' only lead of the game, however. The Owls shot away from the perennial Big East basement dweller, opening up a double-digit advantage within the first five minutes and surviving a late comeback bid by the Blue Demons for a 74-65 win at American Airlines Arena.

Brown, in his fourth game back from an offseason Achilles injury, played a season-high 28 minutes, finishing with 11 points, six steals, five assists, two rebounds and zero turnovers before fouling out with 4:15 to play.

The lead was 17 at that point, having never gone below that mark the entire second half and growing as large as 25 with nine minutes to play.

A 20-2 run by DePaul (5-3) over a six-minute span brought the lead down to 68-63 with under 50 seconds to play.

Sophomore Shizz Alston Jr. made both ends of a one-and-one to push it back to seven, and had a clutch steal with 20 seconds left, hitting two more foul shots to make it a 73-65 game.

Junior forward Obi Enechionyia led Temple (7-3) with 14 points and seven rebounds. Alston (13) and freshman Quinton Rose (12) joined him and Brown in double figures. Senior walk-on Mike Robbins had a career-high eight points off the bench.

Brown wasn't the only Owl new to the starting lineup. Freshman forward Damion Moore got his first career start in his third game of action, finishing with three points and six rebounds in a career-high 21 minutes of action.

Sophomore guard Eli Cain, a Willingboro, N.J. native, led DePaul with 17 points.

Next up, Temple gets national No. 1 Villanova next in a battle for Big 5 supremacy on Tuesday. Both the Owls and Wildcats are 3-0 in city play.