No. 12 Houston escapes Temple

PHILADELPHIA » Fabian White Jr. had 15 points and 14 rebounds, and Jamal Shead scored 14 points to lead depleted No. 12 Houston past Temple 66-61 on Sunday night.

Houston (12-2, 1-0 American Athletic Conference) had 10 players available and only seven played, which was enough against Temple (7-6, 1-1 AAC), but certainly won’t sustain the team through the meat of AAC schedule. Coach Kelvin Sampson was forced to use grad assistants and managers in practice over the last week with so many players out with injuries or in COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

Damian Dunn scored 14 points and Nick Jourdain had 12 for Temple, which made a run at an upset; FanDuel Sportsbook had the Cougars as 16½-point favorites on the road.

Jahlil White buried a 3 that pulled the Owls to 5754 with 6 minutes left and Jourdain followed with Temple’s 10th 3-pointer to make it 59-57 with 3:53 left in the game.

Houston’s Ramon Walker Jr., buried a 3 in front of his own bench as the shot clock expired to keep the Owls at bay.

NO. 10 MICHIGAN STATE 73, NORTHWESTERN 67 »

Gabe Brown scored 20 points, Marcus Bingham Jr. added 13 and Michigan State rallied from a 13-point first-half deficit to beat Northwestern.

Max Christie had 11 points and Joey Hauser added 10 as the Spartans (12-2, 3-0 Big Ten) won their seventh straight.

Pete Nance had 13 points before fouling out and Boo Buie and Chase Audige had 12 points apiece for Northwestern (8-3, 1-1).

The Wildcats led virtually the entire first half, and were up 33-26 at halftime after holding Michigan State to 9-for-27 shooting.