National Basketball Association
Utah 74, Temple 68
When: 4:30 PM ET, Sunday, November 22, 2015
Where: Coliseo Roberto Clemente, San Juan
Officials:
# Lee Cassell, # Olandis Poole, # Kelly Self
Attendance:
N/A
By The Sports Xchange
Center Jakob Poeltl scored a career-high 32 points and added 11 rebounds to help No. 16 Utah survive a late Temple rally and edge the Owls 74-68 for third place in the Puerto Rico Tip-off on Sunday.
Guard Brandon Taylor added 10 points for the Utes and buried a jumper with 27 seconds remaining that put Utah (4-1) ahead for good.
Guard Quenton Decosey scored 14 points and forward Obi Enechionyia added 13 points to lead the Owls. Temple (1-3) trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half before rallying and taking a lead in the final minutes.
Both teams struggled to find an offensive rhythm through much of the first half. Utah missed 13 of its first 17 shots from the field. Temple missed 15 of its first 19 shots to start.
Poeltl provided a steadying influence for the Utes. The sophomore made a trio of layups and scored nine of his team's first 10 points to help Utah take an early 10-4 lead.
Temple caught and passed the Utes briefly when Mark Williams and Levan Alston drained back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Owls a 17-14 lead with 9:16 left in the half. The Owls did not stay on top for long once Utah's offense finally came to life.
Guard Brandon Taylor drained a 3-pointer – breaking a string of nine straight misses for the Utes from the perimeter – to tie the game at 19-19. Then guard Dakarai Tucker hit another 3-pointer to put Utah back in front at 22-21.
Poeltl and forward Jordan Loveridge combined to make seven free throws over four consecutive Ute possessions to extend the lead to 29-24. Free throw shooting helped Utah weather its first-half shooting drought. The Utes were 15-of-17 from the line in the first half alone.
Temple closed the gap again on back-to-back jumpers from guard Josh Brown and Decosey, but forward Kenneth Ogbe and Taylor answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to push Utah's lead to 37-28 with 2:13 left before halftime.
Utah scored on three straight possessions, culminating in a jumper from forward Kyle Kuzma, to go up 46-32 early in the second half.
Temple rallied and cut the deficit to a point when Brown drilled a 3-pointer to cap a 10-0 run to narrow Utah's lead to 59-58 with 5:36 remaining. Poeltl made a layup and Kuzma hit a pair of free throws to extend the lead back to five.
The Owls stayed with the Utes and finally took a 66-65 lead with 2:40 left when Alston buried a 3-pointer and Lowe dunked the ball one possession later. Taylor put Utah ahead for good when his basket broke a 68-68 tie.
Top Game Performances
| Temple |
|
Utah |
|
Quenton DeCosey 14 |
Scoring |
Jakob Poeltl 32 |
|
Daniel Dingle 5 |
Assists |
Jordan Loveridge 3 |
|
Jaylen Bond 5 |
Rebounds |
Jakob Poeltl 11 |
|
Quenton DeCosey 4 |
Free Throws Made |
Jakob Poeltl 12 |
|
Obi Enechionyia 2 |
Steals |
Jordan Loveridge 2 |
|
N/A |
Blocks |
Jakob Poeltl 3 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Temple
|
68 |
39.4 |
10-29 |
6-9 |
13 |
28 |
0 |
5 |
6 |
| Utah
|
74 |
40.4 |
6-23 |
26-34 |
11 |
36 |
4 |
4 |
9 |
For more information, contact us