By Harry Allison
They called it a consolation game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, but Temple got none.
Christian Wood had 18 points and 13 rebounds and UNLV held Temple to five second-half field goals in posting a 57-50 victory Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Wood was the catalyst in the second half, scoring 16 points and sweeping the boards with 10 rebounds. He had seven in an 11-3 spurt to open the second half that gave UNLV the lead for good.
Will Cummings (photo above) had 21 points for Temple (2-2). Quenton DeCosey added 11. The rest of the team scored 18 points on 5-of-33 shooting.
“We need to work a lot more on our offensive game,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “These guys are very athletic. We weren’t careful enough in our execution. We need to do a better job.”
Despite shooting 24.1 percent for the game, Temple had a chance to tie it late.
Down 51-43 with 3:29 to play, the Owls got within three points when Cummings capped a five-point run with a three-point play to close the gap to 51-48 with 2:13 to play.
Temple played much better in a loss to No. 4 Duke on Friday night, but Cummings insisted the team did not take UNLV lightly.
“We lost by 20 (to Duke), so I don’t think there was a good feeling,” said Cummings, who was 6 of 14 from the field.
