By Mary Cunningham
Temple is starting to pick up steam in conference play on its drive to March Madness.
Will Cummings scored 17 points and the Owls skated to a 66-53 victory over East Carolina on Saturday at the Liacouris Center.
Cummings was a perfect 7 of 7 from the line and had six assists. Jesse Morgan added 14 points, Josh Brown chipped in 10, and Jaylen Bond (being interviewed with coach Fran Dunphy in photo above) finished with 16 boards for Temple (19-7, 10-3), which holds third place in the American Athletic Conference.
The Owls closed out the first half on a 10-1 run to lead 34-18 at the break, and East Carolina could get no closer than 11 points in the second half. A three-point play from Brown and a pair of free throws from Cummings gave Temple an 18-point advantage with 5:46 to play.
The Owls didn’t score in the final 4:20, but just five points from East Carolina wasn’t enough to close the deficit.
Terry Whisnant scored 13 points for the Pirates (11-14, 4-8).
