Knights fizzle on road against Owls
PHILADELPHIA — Quinton Rose scored 19 points and Shizz Alston Jr. scored 13 and Temple beat UCF 75-56 on Sunday in a game it never trailed.
Temple (16-12, 8-8 American Athletic Conference) built a 16-0 lead with Steve Leonard making two 3-pointers and Obi Enechionyia and Josh Brown adding 3s. A.J. Davis’ 3 with 12:39 before halftime served as UCF’s first basket of the game as the Knights (17-11, 8-8) missed their first six shots, two free throws and turned it over three times.
The Owls were up 33-20 at halftime and led by double figures the entire second half. Nate Pierre-Louis scored 11 for Temple and J.P. Moorman II grabbed 10 rebounds. Temple shot 52 percent (29 of 56) including 9 of 20 from beyond the 3-point arc.
“We got off to a poor start and we weren’t able to get in a rhythm,” UCF coach Johnny Dawkins said. “We haven’t defended anywhere near what we expect our guys to do. Very disappointing for us. It’s not who we are.”
Davis led the Knights with 18 points, and UCF shot 16 of 50 from the field.
UCF will now return home for the remainder of the regular season. The Knights host Wichita State on Thursday and then welcome Tulane to CFE Arena for Senior Day on Sunday.
“We have to make sure our mindset is right,” Dawkins said. “We get to go home. We have a great opportunity to play a very good Wichita State team at home and then close out with Tulane. They’re two good basketball teams, so we’re going to need to play well to give ourselves a chance to win.”
’Noles fall
RALEIGH, N.C. — Allerik Freeman scored 25 points to help North Carolina State beat No. 25 Florida State 92-72 on Sunday night.
Torin Dorn added 19 points and Sam Hunt had 14 for the Wolfpack (20-9, 10-6 Atlantic Coast Conference), who opened the game with a 9-2 spurt and never trailed.
N.C. State won its fourth consecutive ACC regular season game in the same season for the first time since 2006.
Omer Yurtseven scored 13 points and Markell Johnson had 12 for the Wolfpack, who led by as many as 28 points in the second half.
N.C. State shot 50 percent from the floor, including 13 of 22 from 3-point range.
Trent Forrest led Florida State (19-9, 8-8) with 16 points.
Braian Angola scored 14 points and Christ Koumadje had 12 for the Seminoles, who were 0-for-15 from 3-point range.
Terance Mann scored all 10 of his points in the second half for Florida State.
The Seminoles are still on track to achieve a second straight NCAA Tournament berth, but they must play much better than they did against N.C. State. They need to beat either Clemson or Boston College next week to finish at .500 in league play and avoid carrying a losing streak into the ACC Tournament.
The Wolfpack shot better than 50 percent from the floor for the fifth consecutive game, taking a big step toward solidifying their first NCAA tournament berth since 2015. One year after slumping to a 15-17 record, they reached 20 wins overall and 10 conference wins in coach Kevin Keatts’ first season.
Florida State plays at Clemson on Wednesday night in its final road game of the regular season.