Who’s Playing
Temple Owls @ East Carolina Pirates
Current Records: Temple 9-5, East Carolina 8-7
How To Watch
What to Know
We’ve got another exciting American Athletic matchup on schedule as the Temple Owls and the East Carolina Pirates are set to tip at 7:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. The Owls are strutting in with some offensive muscle as they’ve averaged 79.4 points per game this season.
If Temple beats East Carolina with 91 points on Wednesday, it’s going to be the team’s new lucky number: they’ve won their past two matches with that exact score. Temple walked away with a 91-85 win over Wichita State on Friday. The Owls’ season wasn’t pretty last year but it’s starting to look like struggles are in the rearview.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Temple to victory, but perhaps none more so than Jamal Mashburn Jr., who had 24 points. With that strong performance, Mashburn Jr. is now averaging an impressive 20.2 points per game. Another player making a difference was Quante Berry, who went 5 for 7 en route to 14 points plus five assists and five rebounds.
Meanwhile, East Carolina’s recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Sunday after their third straight loss. They fell just short of FAU by a score of 78-76. For those keeping track at home, that’s the closest defeat the Pirates have suffered since November 15, 2023.
The loss doesn’t tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Jordan Riley, who almost dropped a double-double on 19 points and nine rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of C.J. Walker, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 13 rebounds.
Even though they lost, East Carolina smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 25 offensive rebounds. The team’s really been improving in that area: they’ve now improved their offensive rebound total in four consecutive matchups.
Temple’s victory was their sixth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 9-5. As for East Carolina, their loss dropped their record down to 8-7.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Temple has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 37.4 rebounds per game. However, it’s not like East Carolina struggles in that department as they’ve been averaging 39.7. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we’ll see if one team can grab an edge.
Temple is hoping to beat the odds on Wednesday, as the experts think they’re headed for a loss. For those looking to play the spread, keep Temple’s opponent in mind: they have a solid 6-3 record against the spread vs East Carolina over their last nine matchups.
Odds
East Carolina is a 3-point favorite against Temple, according to the latest college basketball odds.
The oddsmakers were right in line with the betting community on this one, as the game opened as a 3-point spread, and stayed right there.
The over/under is 146.5 points.
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Series History
Temple has won 7 out of their last 10 games against East Carolina.
- Jan 28, 2024 – East Carolina 70 vs. Temple 64
- Jan 10, 2024 – East Carolina 73 vs. Temple 62
- Jan 18, 2023 – Temple 73 vs. East Carolina 58
- Dec 28, 2022 – Temple 59 vs. East Carolina 57
- Feb 02, 2022 – Temple 71 vs. East Carolina 63
- Jan 08, 2022 – Temple 78 vs. East Carolina 75
- Feb 23, 2020 – East Carolina 67 vs. Temple 63
- Feb 01, 2020 – Temple 76 vs. East Carolina 64
- Jan 16, 2019 – Temple 85 vs. East Carolina 74
- Feb 07, 2018 – Temple 90 vs. East Carolina 73
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