Tonight, the Bearcats traveled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to take on the Temple Owls, as the Bearcats were looking to make their winning streak four games in a row, as they head into one of the biggest stretches of the season. The Bearcats currently sit 14-5 overall, (4-2 AAC), while the Owls are 10-6 on the season, (3-2 AAC).
The big news ahead of this contest was the status of Bearcats forward John Newmann III who we saw exit Thursday’s matchup versus Tulsa with a knee injury. An injury that worried a lot of people as Bearcat’s head coach Wes Miller said following the Bearcats 90-69 victory. The Bearcats got great news as John Newman and Viktor Lakhin were both available to play tonight for the Bearcats, as Lakhin has missed the last few games with a hip injury, but to see the Bearcats getting healthy ahead if the biggest stretch of the season was huge.
The Bearcats got the ball rolling early with John Newman on a fadeaway jumper, a great sight to see after not returning to the game last Thursday after suffering the injury. The Bearcats however were doing a great distributing the ball early as four Bearcats scored within the first 5 minutes, where they held an 8-5 lead over the Temple Owls. The Bearcats were looking to find a way to get Mason Madsen involved early as he led the way with five points through the first 8 minutes, as the sophomore was looking to get hot after coming off the hip injury, he was dealing with that caused him to miss roughly three weeks of action ahead of conference play. The Bearcats however were held scoreless for nearly 6 minutes in the first half before a John Newman put back broke the drought and tie, to give the Bearcats a 16-14 lead at the under 8 media timeout.
After a quick made three from Jeremiah Davenport, the Bearcats got the offense going as David DeJulius responded with a quick five points, as he recorded his first basket with 6 minutes to go in the first half, as the Bearcats knew they needed to find a way to get DeJulius involved to open up the offense. The senior guard then went on an 8-0 run to give the Bearcats a 27-24 lead with 3 minutes remaining in the first half. The Bearcats would get a huge triple from Madsen to take a 30-24 lead, after a 6 point run by the Bearcats late in the first half.
After starting just 1-of-11 from three, the Bearcats found their grove late in the first half, where they knocked down 5 of their last 8 triples, as they finished the first half shooting 39% from the field, 32% from three, 54% from the foul line. The Bearcats really flipped the script the final 6 minutes or so of the first half, as they really took over this game, where they led 37-25 at the break, behind Mason Madsen, Jeremiah Davenport, David DeJulius, who all had eight points at the break.
Temple however, came out on a 6-0 run as they were looking to erase the Bearcats early 12-point lead, as they held the Bearcats scoreless for nearly three minutes, as they looked to make a comeback here in Philadelphia. The Owls were locked in to start the second half as they knew they had to make some adjustments as the Bearcats held a 12 point, lead that the Owls would try to erase down the stretch of the second half. The Bearcats were looking to answer as the Owls were having a tough time defending the Bearcats as they were really staying balanced on the offense end as six different players scored in the range from 5-9 points with 12 minutes remaining in the second half.
However, the Owls weren’t shying away as they were looking to make this one a nail biter as they cut the Bearcats lead to as many as 4, with 6 minutes remaining in the game, but the Bearcats were looking to get something going to stop the Owls momentum, as the Owls were locked in on defense creating another 3-minute scoring drought which had allowed them to crawl back after getting stops on defense. The Owls held the Bearcats to just 1 of their last 17, as they the Bearcats scoreless for nearly 5 minutes down the stretch of this one, and that was something that would hurt the Bearcats as all the momentum was favoring the Owls right now. The Bearcats would get 4 straight points from DeJulius, as the Bearcats were looking to hold on here in Philadelphia, and that is when DeJulius started to take control and create some big time plays down the stretch. The Owls would cut their deficit to 1, with just 52 seconds remaining where they called a timeout, as they got the shot they wanted, where they would take a 60-58 lead over the Bearcats, where they would hold on to win 61-58.
The Bearcats were led by David DeJulius, who scored a team high 15 points. The story of the night for the Bearcats However, was John Newman, who finished the night with nine points and nine rebounds, as Newman was making his presence known on both ends of the floor and showed why he was a huge target for coach Wes Miller this offseason, and to have a big game like he did tonight, showed a lot despite leaving the Bearcats 90-69 victory over Tulsa last week with a knee injury. Mika Adams-Woods and Jeremiah Davenport also scored nine points for the Bearcats. Mason Madsen got off to a hot start as he finished with eight points, all within the first half, which shows how balanced this team is when it comes to playmakers and it was on display tonight, however the Bearcats just fell short and ran out of gas at the end. The Bearcats finished shooting 29% from the field, 21% from three, 61% from the foul line, despite seeing how well the team has shot the ball coming to tonight over the span of the last four games.
The Bearcats will be back in action this Sunday when they travel to Greensville, North Carolina to take on the East Carolina Pirates for a noon tipoff, where they look to bounce bad in the win column and get back on track ahead of Houston and Memphis next week.
