National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Temple 84, Central Florida 78
When: 12:00 PM ET, Sunday, January 4, 2015
Where: Liacouras Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Officials: # Patrick Adams, # Roger Ayers, # Michael Stephens
Attendance: 4008

Temple 84, UCF 78: Jaylen Bond scored a career-best 21 points and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds as the host Owls turned away the Knights in American Athletic Conference play.

Will Cummings added 21 points and five assists for Temple (11-4, 2-0 AAC), which won its fifth straight game. Josh Brown chipped in with 14 points and six rebounds off the bench for the Owls, who outrebounded UCF 44-39.

B.J. Taylor registered 21 points and Daiquan Walker added 17 off the bench for the Knights (7-6, 0-2), who fell to 2-5 in their last seven games after a promising 5-1 start to the season. Adonys Henriquez chipped in with 14 points and Brandon Goodwin tallied 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists for UCF.

UCF showed some battle early on, jumping out to a 4-0 lead and tying the game on several occasions thereafter. With the game knotted at 22 after Taylor split a pair of free throws with 7:43 left in the first half, Devontae Watson struck with a bucket to spring Temple on a 16-4 spurt that featured key 3-pointers from Jesse Morgan, Cummings and Daniel Dingle to hit the locker room at halftime up 38-26.

After the break, the Knights fought back again, with Taylor and Henriquez combining for all the points in an 8-2 run to pull to within 40-35 just over 2 1/2 minutes in. The Owls answered immediately with a 9-0 surge, led by four points from Cummings and a 3-pointer from DeCosey, establishing a 49-35 lead with 15:18 to play and after UCF made one more run at a comeback, pulling to within 70-63 on a 3-pointer from Taylor with 4:10 left, DeCosey struck from beyond the arc himself and Temple held off a late rally in the waning minutes.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The Knights and Owls have split all four meetings against each other, with the home team victorious in each of the three regular season showdowns. ... UCF shot 9-of-20 from 3-point range, improving their AAC-best proficiency from beyond the arc. ... Morgan, a transfer from Massachusetts playing in his fifth game with Temple, totaled only five points on 2-of-10 shooting after averaging 16.3 in his first four outings.
Top Game Performances
 
Central Florida   Temple
B.J. Taylor 21 Scoring Jaylen Bond 21
Brandon Goodwin 5 Assists Will Cummings 5
Brandon Goodwin 7 Rebounds Jaylen Bond 14
B.J. Taylor 5 Free Throws Made Will Cummings 8
Adonys Henriquez 3 Steals Will Cummings 3
Adonys Henriquez 1 Blocks Devontae Watson 4
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Central Florida 78 45.5 9-20 9-15 12 36 2 6 11
Temple 84 45.6 7-24 15-22 17 43 8 7 8