The numbers didn't lie. The Owls had 23 assists on 27 field goals. They turned it over only eight times, including two late ones by Lavoy Allen that only served to annoy coach Fran Dunphy. Otherwise, Allen did what he does, finishing with 16 points on 8-for-14 shooting to go with nine rebounds, a career-high seven assists, two steals and a block. He also was solid at the defensive end, as usual. The only other thing you could really knock him for was not getting to the foul line, which Dunphy also duly noted. It's what Dunph does.
Leading scorer Ryan Brooks, who'd strugged with his shot the last two games, went 7-for-13 for 17 points. He too had a career-best seven assists. Juan Fernandez, coming off a 20-point effort, went 5-for-6, 3-for-4 from the arc, to end up with 13. And five of his passes resulted in two points for a teammate, which matched his career high.
Ball State (2-1) shot 9-for-17 in the first half, 8-for-27 thereafter. Some of it was the Cardinals' doing, but some of it was Temple's fundamental man-to-man pressure.
"It all starts with defense," Brooks said. "That creates our offense, tends to get easier buckets for all of us. We're going to try and continue to do it.
"We just have to execute, get the job done. We'll go out and fight hard, get the W and move on from there. We have extreme confidence in each other out there. As long as we communicate, positive things will come out of it. Just grind it out."
Fernandez played with a sprained left thumb. If he wasn't taped up, you wouldn't have known.
