Bowling Green State University
Temple
Second-Half Surge Lifts Temple Past Falcons, 72-55
November 24, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 24, 2007
Final Stats | Quotes
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - Visiting Temple University went on an 18-4 run early in the second half, pulling away from the Bowling Green State University men's basketball team for a 72-55 win Saturday afternoon (Nov. 24). The non-conference game was held at BGSU's Anderson Arena.
With the victory, the Owls improve to 2-3 on the young season, while dropping the Falcons to 3-2. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Brown and Orange.
Junior Nate Miller led all players with 21 points, tying his career high. Miller was 9-of-14 from the field and also added seven rebounds and a game-high three steals.
Dionte Christmas scored 20 points and Mark Tyndale 19 for the Owls.
The Falcons had battled back from a six-point first-half deficit to forge a 31-31 tie at the intermission, and BG took a brief lead early in the second half before the Owls made their run.
Temple shot 52.9 percent for the game, including a 68.2% rate in the second half. The Owls outscored the Falcons by a 41-24 count in the final 20 minutes.
The first half of the game featured seven ties and eight lead changes. The back-and-forth contest saw three of those ties in the first three minutes.
The Owls split free throws on each of their first two possessions, while the Falcons countered with a pair of driving layups, from Miller and senior Ryne Hamblet. After Christmas hit a jumper to tie the contest at 4-4, junior Darryl Clements drilled a step-back three-pointer for a 7-4 lead.
Christmas, however, answered with a three-pointer of his own, then an acrobatic reverse layup to give TU a 9-7 lead at the opening media timeout.
Miller scored five-straight points, hitting a layup off a Hamblet feed, then stealing the ball and driving downcourt for a three-point play, with the free throw giving the Falcons a 12-11 lead at the 13:45 mark.
Several minutes later, sophomore Otis Polk tipped in a teammate's miss to give the home team the lead once again, and a jumper by soph Marc Larson increased that lead to three points, 20-17. After Temple's Sergio Olmos picked up his third foul of the game at the 8:54 mark, a Larson free throw gave the Brown and Orange team a four-point advantage.
A Chris Clark three-pointer, however, sparked a 6-0 run for the Owls, and after a Miller jumper, the visitors got back-to-back triples from Ryan Brooks and Tyndale to take a 29-23 lead. A pair of charity tosses by Larson were answered by a Lavoy Allen layup at the 2:23 mark, before the Falcons rallied for the halftime tie.
The hosts used some nifty passing after a Hamblet rebound and outlet pass. Freshman Joe Jakubowski passed to redshirt frosh Chris Knight, who spotted Larson cutting to the hoop. Larson's layup at the 1:27 mark cut Temple's lead to two points.
Late in the half, Knight got a steal near midcourt and fired the ball ahead to Jakubowski for a layup to tie the score.
The Brown and Orange took the lead just nine seconds into the second half, on a layup by Miller that completed an 8-0 run. But, the lead would be BG's last. Christmas hit a triple at the other end of the floor for the first of seven-straight TU points.
After the teams traded baskets over the next few minutes, the Owls would score nine consecutive points to take a 49-37 lead with 12:16 left in the game.
Knight spotted an open Polk for a layup to stop that run, but the Owls kept pulling away. A four-point play by Christmas gave Temple a 53-39 lead midway through the half, and the Falcons could get no closer than 12 points thereafter.
Allen joined Christmas and Tyndale in double figures for the visitors, with 10 points on the afternoon. Allen and Tyndale tied for team honors with eight rebounds apiece, and Tyndale had a game-high six assists.
For the Falcons, Larson had 11 points, while junior Ryan Sims had six in just four minutes off the bench. Hamblet dished out five assists in the contest.
The Falcons now embark upon a three-game road swing, beginning with a Tuesday (Nov. 27) game at Furman University.
