Who’s Playing
Temple Owls @ North Texas Mean Green
Current Records: Temple 8-8, North Texas 9-5
How To Watch
What to Know
Temple has enjoyed the comforts of home their last two games, but now they’ll head out on the road. The Temple Owls and the North Texas Mean Green will face off in an American Athletic battle at 6:00 p.m. ET on Saturday at The Super Pit.
The point spread may have favored Temple on Wednesday, but the final result did not. They took a 73-62 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Pirates. Temple found out winning isn’t easy when your shooting is a whole 17.6% worse than the opposition.
The loss doesn’t tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Jahlil White, who scored 13 points along with seven rebounds.
Meanwhile, North Texas had already won three in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 20.3 points), and they went ahead and made it four on Saturday. They walked away with a 70-56 victory over the Green Wave.
North Texas can attribute much of their success to Jason Edwards, who went 8 for 10 from beyond the arc en route to 37 points and 0 assists. That’s the first time this season that Edwards scored 30 or more points.
The Owls’ defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 8-8. As for the Mean Green, they pushed their record up to 9-5 with that victory, which was their 15th straight at home dating back to last season.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Temple have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 38.2 rebounds per game. However, it’s not like North Texas struggles in that department as they’ve been averaging 37.2 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it’ll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.