Temple downs South Florida, looks ahead to Villanova

Temple's basketball team had a simple task Sunday against struggling South Florida: Forget about the recent past and don't look very far ahead.

That wasn't the easiest of assignments because the Owls were coming off a monumental comeback win over Connecticut. And next they will host No. 1 Villanova on Wednesday.

In between there was a South Florida team that entered the game last in the American Athletic Conference in scoring offense (63 ppg.)

During a season in which very little has come easy, Temple overcame some difficult spurts to dispose of the Bulls, 77-65, at the Liacouras Center.

The Owls are in sole possession of first place in the AAC, improving to 16-8 overall and 10-3 in the conference.

Temple had five players score in double figures for the first time since an 88-74 loss at Houston on Feb. 9, 2014.

Jaylen Bond had 18 points and 14 rebounds and Obi Enechionyia added 18 points for the Owls. The other double-figure scorers were Quenton DeCosey (12), Josh Brown (11), and Devin Coleman (10). Temple had a season-high 21 assists, with Brown tying his career high with nine.

Not all was flawless for Temple, especially on the defensive end. USF (5-21, 2-11) made 27 of 49 shots from the field (55.1 percent) and 6 of 13 from three point range.

So coach Fran Dunphy wasn't exactly raving about the Owls' performance.

"It was OK," he said. "I wasn't elated, to be honest with you. The defensive numbers weren't very good for us."

Temple was coming off a 63-58 win Thursday over visiting UConn, when the Owls overcame a 12-point deficit with less than six minutes remaining.

It might have been tempting to overlook a USF team with all the hype surrounding Villanova's arrival on Wednesday.

Temple made 8 of its first 9 shots in jumping to a 19-8 lead.

"We tried to jump on them early, but they are a resilient team so we just stuck with it and we came out with the victory," Brown said.

The Bulls made Temple sweat during Temple's 70-63 win at USF on Jan. 31, and they did the same again, at least for three-quarters of the game.

As well as Temple started, the Owls couldn't shake South Florida. Freshman guard Jahmal McMurry, who scored a game-high 24 points, hit a 60-footer at the buzzer as the Bulls cut the halftime lead to 40-31.

Temple, which honored its 1991 Elite Eight team at halftime, had led by as many as 15 points in the first half. USF cut the margin to four points on two occasions within the first seven minutes of the second half.

The Owls finally pulled away with an 11-0 run that extended their lead to 64-49 before USF called time with 9 minutes, 9 seconds left.

Now all their attention is focused on the No. 1 team in the nation.

"There is a lot of excitement," Bond said. "They are No. 1 in the country, so we are looking forward to it."

mnarducci@phillynews.com

@sjnard