Temple Gets 3rd Big 5 Win of the Season in Victory Over Saint Joseph’s, Clinches Share of Big 5 Title

Written by: Jake Gabel

Photo by: Val Pendrak

Philadelphia – The Temple Owls beat  Saint Joseph’s  70-60 to improve to 3-0 in Big 5 play this season. The Owls clinched a share of the Big 5 Title. If Temple beats Penn in its next matchup, they will sweep the Big 5 for the first time since the 2009-10 season. 

Khalif Battle scored 20 points to lead the Owls, his fifth straight game of at least 20 points. Zach Hicks had 10 points and 10 rebounds, his first double-double of his collegiate career. 

“That’s basketball. We can’t hang our hats on offense,” head coach Aaron McKie said about Hicks’ efforts on the boards. “You obviously have to score the ball but if shots aren’t falling then there are other ways to impact the game.”

Big 5 games seem to have more intensity, especially for the players. Last year, Saint Joseph’s beat Temple by 19 points, 68-49. Battle was out for that game due to injury, and said that game was extra motivation for tonight’s performance. 

“They were kind of talking crazy last year,” Battle said. “I don’t like that because I like people who are the same people everyday and I feel like they took some little jabs last year especially when I was sitting out with a broken foot.” 

Cameron Brown led the Hawks in scoring with 25 points, a career high. Brown missed just one shot all game, a three-pointer, going 7-8 from the field and 5-6 from deep. 

Once again the Owls took over in the second half. Temple shot over 50 percent from the field in the second half and 44 percent from deep. In the first half, the Owls shot just 37 percent from the field. 

Slow starts have been a theme for the Owls this season. The score was  just 29-26 Temple  at halftime. 

The game was tied at 26 with 10 seconds remaining when Hysier Miller hit a three-pointer at the top of the key to give the Owls the lead at half. Including this game, Temple now averages 31 points in the first half, compared to the 40 points per game Temple averages in the 2nd half.  

Although there was not much scoring in the first half, the baskets that did go in were memorable. With eight minutes to go in the half, a scramble for a loose ball ended up in the hands of Khalif Battle who threw down a thunderous slam that got the Liacouras Center on their feet. 

At half, the leading scorer for both teams was Saint Joseph’s Cameron Brown, who did not miss a shot in the first 20 minutes. His 13 points came on 4-4 shooting, 3-3 from deep, and 2-2 from the line. Brown seemed like he could have been done for the game after play was stopped when he was on the ground. He hobbled off to the locker room with just three points.

Temple got out to a hot start in the second half. After missing their first eight three-pointers of the game, the Owls would make 6 of their next 10 attempts. It took Temple over 12 minutes to get to 16 points in the first half, Temple would score 17 points in less than 6 and a half minutes to start the second half. 

For Saint Joseph’s, they fall to 3-5 on the season and 1-1 in Big 5 play. The Hawks next game will be at home against  4-4 Saint Peter’s on Saturday, December 10. Tipoff is at 1 p.m.

As for Temple, they improve to 6-4 on the season and 3-0 in Big 5 play. The Owls next game will also be on Saturday December 10 with a 1 p.m. tipoff time. They will travel to the Palestra for their last Big 5 game of the season against Penn.