Memphis Set for First Trip to Temple in Four Years

Sunday, January 15

Philadelphia, Pa.

2 p.m.

University of Memphis

Temple

Jan 14, 2023 | Men's Basketball

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – For the first time in almost four years, the Memphis Tigers gear up for a trip to Philadelphia where they will take on the Temple Owls Sunday afternoon on ESPN2. Game time inside the Liacouras Center is set for 2 p.m. CT.

The Tigers will visit the Owls for the first time since Jan. 24, 2019, Penny Hardaway's first season as head coach. The scheduled road trip there for 2020-21 was canceled due to COVID-19 and the teams were only slated to play once in 2019-20 and 2020-21, both in the Bluff City.

Memphis (12-5, 2-2 AAC) will look to get back on track after dropping a thrilling 107-104 double-overtime contest at UCF Wednesday night. The defeat leaves the Tigers still searching for their first road win of the conference season.

Kendric Davis did everything he could to help Memphis win against the Knights, dropping a career-high 42 points. He scored 19 of the team's 26 points in the two overtime periods.

The output was one point shy of tying former Tiger Jeremiah Martin's American Conference single-game record (43) and marked the fifth-highest single-game output in program history.

Temple enters Sunday 10-8 overall and sits tied for second place in the league at 4-1. The Owls have a win at home over Cincinnati, as well as three road victories at East Carolina, South Florida and Tulsa. On the year they are 5-4 at home, including a 68-64 win over then No. 16 Villanova on Nov. 11.

The all-time series between the two schools dates back to 1952-53 with Memphis holding a slight 12-11 advantage after last season's 78-64 win at FedExForum on Feb. 24.

The meeting will feature two of the AAC's top three scorers in Memphis' Kendric Davis and Temple's Khaliff Battle. Davis leads the league at 21.3 points per game, and Battle is pouring in 18.0 points each time out.

The two head coaches in Sunday's game, Memphis' Penny Hardaway and Temple's Aaron McKie, are both former NBA players who are coaching at their alma maters. Hardaway and McKie also played against each other in both college and in the NBA.

After Sunday's matchup, Memphis returns home to host Wichita State on Thursday at 6 p.m. The game will be the first celebration game of the 1972-73 national runner-up team with 1,000 bobbleheads of head coach Gene Bartow being handed out at the gates.

GAME DETAILS
Memphis Tigers (12-5, 2-2 AAC) vs. Temple Owls (10-8, 4-1 AAC)
Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023 | 2 p.m. CT
Liacouras Center (10,000); Philadelphia, Pa.
Television: ESPN2 (Kevin Brown pxp; Jon Crispin analysis)
Radio: 98.9 THE ROAR OF MEMPHIS (Dave Woloshin, pxp; Matt Dillon, analysis)

BY THE NUMBERS

1,452: Days since Days since the Tigers last played at Temple (1/24/19); the scheduled road trip for 2020-21 was not played due to COVID-19, and the teams were only scheduled to play once in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
33: Free throws needed by Kendric Davis to enter the Memphis single-season top-10 list. His 124 total makes on the season are most in the country.
6.8: The average margin of victory in the 23 all-time meetings between Memphis and Temple.
11.8: Elijah McCadden's scoring average in his four starts this season. In those games, he is also averaging a team-high 6.3 rebounds and shooting a team best 74.1 percent from the field (20-27).

THE LAST TIME OUT

Memphis led by 10 with five minutes remaining, but ultimately fell in double overtime inside Addition Financial Arena Wednesday night to the Central Florida Knights, 107-104.
Kendric Davis scored a career-high 42 points - one point shy of former Tiger Jeremiah Martin's AAC record set in 2019 - which was tied for the fifth-most in a game in program history.
The Tigers saw a late lead evaporate as UCF hit a 3-point shot with under 30 seconds to play in regulation to tie the score at 78-78 and force overtime.
Davis was responsible for the first seven points for the Tigers in overtime before Keonte Kennedy came up with a steal and a dunk to tie the game once again at 87-87 with 15 seconds left in the OT period. UCF missed the ensuing three-point attempt and the game moved to double overtime. Kennedy ended the night with a season high-tying 14 points.
In the second OT period, redshirt-freshman Johnathan Lawson nailed a contested three-point shot from the corner to make the score 104-105 and get Memphis within one with 14.7 seconds to play. The Knights ultimately hung on to win after the Tigers' failed buzzer-beater attempt to force a third overtime.
Memphis finished the night shooting 50.7 percent overall (35-69) and 90.3 percent from the free throw line (28-31). The Tigers also connected on 6-of-18 attempts from deep (33.3%). UCF shot 42.0 percent from the floor (29-69) and drained 45.7 percent from long range (16-35), while going 33-of-37 at the charity stripe (89.2%).
Elijah McCadden produced his best game as a Tiger, scoring a season-high 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting. He also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds in 37 minutes.
Kendric Davis was a free throw machine on the night, converting 21-of-23 attempts at the line. That is the most free throws made in a single-game in almost 66 years when Win Wilfong set the school record with 22 makes against Oklahoma State on Feb. 18, 1957. His 23 free throw attempts tied Wilfong's school mark from the same game.

NOTING THE OWLS

Temple's roster features just two upperclassmen with 10 sophomores and three freshmen.
Among the scholarship players, only one - graduate Kur Jongkuch – is an upperclassmen.
The Owls were tabbed fifth in the preseason coaches poll with 66 points. Damian Dunn was named to the preseason All-AAC first team, while Khaliff Battle was tabbed second team.
The Owls are averaging 69.6 points per game and are shooting at a 43.0-percent clip.
They 30th in the nation in free throw
percentage (75.6%).
Khalif Battle leads the team and ranks third in the AAC in scoring (18.0 ppg) and has scored 20 points in a team-best seven games. He leads the AAC in threes with 54 (3.0 pg) and is 16th nationally, while his 156 attempts are 7th-most.
Damian Dunn ranks second on the team in scoring (14.4 ppg), assists (2.6) and field goal percentage (.452). He tallied a career-high 38 points, the most points by an Owl since 2004, against Vanderbilt. He leads the Owls (tied 43rd in NCAA) in free throws made (74).
Zach Hicks (9.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg), who leads the team in three-point shooting (44-118, .373/8th AAC) and Hysier Miller (8.6 ppg, 3.7 apg/7th AAC) are the only two Owls to start all 18 games.
Jahlil White (5.2 ppg, 4.9 rpg), the team's top perimeter defender, is averaging 8.4 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting 18-of-32 (.563) from the field in conference play.
Nick Jourdain (5.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.3 bpg.), who scored a season high 12 points against Cincinnati, has been on fire from the field of late, shooting 34-62 (54.8%) from the field over the last 13 games.

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