Jordan Mason caps successful homecoming in Temple's 70-64 win at UTSA
Through 20 minutes of basketball down in San Antonio, Temple was on pace to lose to one of the worst teams in the country.
That was before Jordan Mason decided to write himself a more fitting homecoming story.
The Owls’ senior point guard scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half as Temple held off UTSA 70-64 at the Convocation Center.
Mason, who played at San Antonio’s Clark High School, shot 4-for-8 over the final 20 minutes and dished out three assists after scoring just four points on 1-of-4 shooting in the first half, capping a successful, two-game Texas road swing. His 18 points tied a season high, and his second-half surge Saturday came after posting 15 points and six rebounds in Temple’s win at Rice Wednesday.
Temple improved to 13-7 overall and 5-2 in the conference standings, pulling into a second-place tie with Charlotte as of late Saturday afternoon. UTSA, meanwhile, dropped to 4-16 overall and remained winless in league play at 0-8 despite getting a game-high 25 points from sophomore forward Baboucarr Njie.
The Owls entered halftime down 33-31 after trailing by as many as 10 points in the first half. They then opened the second half on a 9-1 run, capped by a three-pointer from Mason, to grab a 40-34 lead with 15:32 left to play. After Njie stopped the run with a tip-in, Mason responded by scoring the next four points on a pull-up jumper and a layup before Derrian Ford scored the next four to open Temple’s largest lead of the game at 48-36 with 12:33 to go.
After UTSA answered with a 14-3 run over a stretch of a little more than four minutes, Mason responded again, this time with a step-back three late in the shot clock over UTSA guard Austin Nunez that gave Temple a 54-50 lead with 7:50 remaining. The Owls never led by double digits again, but two late free throws from Mason with 41 seconds left pushed Temple to a nine-point lead at 67-58.
It certainly wasn’t a comfortable win for Temple over a UTSA team that checked in Saturday at 349th out of 365 Division I teams in the KenPom rankings, but the Owls found a way while once again getting limited offensive contributions from their frontcourt, as starting forward Jamai Felt and backup Babatunde Durodola combined for just seven points on 3-of-7 shooting. Temple also escaped with a win on a day when staring wing forward Gavin Griffiths scored just four points – eight below his average – on 1-of-7 shooting. He came up empty on all five of his three-point attempts and scored on a putback dunk and a pair of late free throws.
Temple held UTSA to a season-worst 2-for-15 shooting from three, and the Owls shot 51.9% over the final 20 minutes as Mason and Ford combined for 26 of Temple’s 39 second-half points. Ford finished with a team-high 21 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the floor and 6-of-7 from the line while also swiping a team-high eight rebounds. His 21st point was also the 1,000th of his career, one that began with stops at Arkansas and Arkansas State for the former 4-star, top-100 recruit from the 2021 class.
The Owls will play again Wednesday when they host Charlotte at 7 p.m. at the Liacouras Center, where they are 8-2 this season. Temple won 76-73 at Charlotte back on Dec. 30 in its American Conference opener.
