Temple finishes 1-2 at Old Spice Classic

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Temple's run as a nationally ranked team is most likely over.

That's what happens when you lose two of three games to unranked opponents in a tournament you were favored to win.

Texas A&M beat the 21st-ranked Owls, 54-51, Sunday in a consolation game of the Old Spice Classic at the HP Fieldhouse. The Owls (3-2) will learn their fate when the national rankings are released Monday.

"I think what we learned was, we are not as good as we were regarded early on," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "Can we get there? That's the hope. But we are still a work in progress. And we need to really get better as a basketball team."

The Owls had an opportunity to post a dramatic victory.

Trailing by 52-51, Dunphy called a time-out with 7 seconds remaining to design a play with options for Lavoy Allen and Juan Fernandez.

Allen, a senior forward, would receive an inbounds pass from Fernandez and immediately hand it back to the junior point guard. Fernandez could kick it back to Allen or spot up and shoot.

He chose to do the latter and missed a wide-open three-pointer from the corner.

"I don't think you could predict he was going to be that cleanly open," Dunphy said of Fernandez, who shot 2 for 16 (12 percent) from three-point range in the tournament. For the season, he's shooting 4 for 23 (17 percent) from that distance.

"But certainly, when he came off the handoff, he was clear, and he shot a good shot," Dunphy added. "It just didn't go in the basket."

Khris Middleton grabbed the defensive rebound and was fouled. The forward converted foul shots to put the Aggies up, 54-51, with 2 seconds left.

Rushing to make something happen, Temple reserve guard Khalif Wyatt committed a midcourt turnover in the final second.

"It's such a fine line: [If] the kid [Fernandez] hits that shot . . . we're not up here smiling," said Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon, whose squad (5-1) recorded its first victory over a winning team. "It would feel like the world is coming to an end. But he missed it and we got a rebound and win the game."

It was exciting, but this game was far from a classic.

The Owls stayed in foul trouble and shot a season-worst 31.3 percent (15 of 48) from the field. The Aggies weren't that much better, shooting 33.3 percent (17 of 51). David Loubeau led the winners with 13 points.

Texas A&M did, however, hold a 45-30 rebounding edge and scored 16 second-chance points.

The Aggies held a commanding 42-29 lead with 13 minutes, 46 seconds to play. But going to a small lineup, Temple went on an 18-4 run to take its first lead (47-46) after intermission with 6:42 remaining. Wyatt had a lot to do with that, scoring all nine of his points during that run.

The Owls led again when guard Ramone Moore's foul shots gave them a 51-50 cushion with 53 seconds left.

But Texas A&M's B.J. Holmes, the smallest player on the court, scored what turned out to be the game-winning layup with 18 seconds to play.

The generously listed 5-foot-11 guard grabbed a rebound underneath the Aggies' basket. His putback made it a 52-51 game.

"When he put that [small] lineup in, we said to ourselves: 'We've got to get ourselves back into the game,' " Wyatt said. "We did a good job. We got us all the way back to where we were up.

"But that offensive rebound at the end killed us."