LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Scootie Randall had 18 points, Ramone Moore scored 14 and No. 21 Temple beat Georgia 65-58 in the second round of the Old Spice Classic on Friday night.
Juan Fernandez made a huge 3-pointer late and Rahlir Jefferson converted a three-point play with 41.4 seconds remaining to lift the Owls (3-1), who rebounded from a tough loss to unranked California in the first round.
Gerald Robinson scored 16 points, and Trey Thompkins had 13 in only his second game this season for Georgia (3-1), which looked tired and out of sync after losing in double overtime to Notre Dame a night earlier.
Both teams are getting used to playing tight games.
After losing in double overtime Thursday night to Notre Dame, the Bulldogs fell behind early. Temple scored the game's first six points, but there were eight lead changes and seven ties in the first half alone.
The Owls slowly pulled away with a 15-6 run to start the second half, mixing up their defenses and becoming more efficient offensively. They swarmed Thompkins, Georgia's leading scorer and rebounder last year, on every touch to keep the 6-foot-10 forward out of the paint as much as possible.
The Bulldogs managed to keep it close.
Khaliff Wyatt missed an alley-hoop dunk, then grabbed two rebounds before finishing for a three-point play to trim Temple's lead to 54-51. Any hope of a comeback quickly faded when Fernandez made a 3-pointer from well beyond the arc with about two minutes remaining to put the Owls ahead by eight points, and Jefferson followed with a three-point play a minute later.
Temple certainly needed this one.
The Owls had cruised through their first two games until Cal knocked them off in the first round of the tournament. And now they're about to begin a tough stretch of their schedule: No. 1 Duke, No. 7 Villanova, No. 16 Georgetown and Maryland are all upcoming for the Owls.
Both teams will finish up in the losers' bracket Sunday after falling in the opener: Temple plays Texas A&M, and Georgia will face Manhattan.
Notre Dame and Wisconsin are in the title game.
No. 21 Temple rolls past Bulldogs
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