The East Carolina Pirates and the Temple Owls meet in college basketball action from the Liacouras Center on Saturday afternoon.
The East Carolina Pirates come into this game on the heels of an 88-80 OT win over Tulane in their last matchup. Tristen Newton leads the Pirates in scoring with 19 PPG as well as in assists with 4.8 APG while Vance Jackson has 10.8 PPG and Brandon Suggs has 10.6 PPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for ECU so far this season. Brandon Johnson is also the Pirates’ top rebounder, grabbing 7.7 RPG for the Pirates up to this point in the year. As a team, East Carolina is averaging 73.8 PPG on 43.6% shooting from the field, 36.2% from three-point range and 74.1% from the foul line while allowing 69.3 PPG on 41.7% shooting from the field and 33.2% from three point range so far this season.
The Temple Owls will try to build on their 66-62 win over UCF in their last game. Damian Dunn is the only active double-digit scorer for Temple with 13.8 PPG and a team-high 4.9 RPG as top scorer Khalif Battle is out for the season with a knee injury. Tai Strickland has 8.2 PPG and Jeremiah Williams has 9.4 PPG with a team-high 4.9 APG to lead the Owls in assists. As a team, Temple is averaging 67 PPG on 40.6% shooting from the field, 29.3% from three and 68.9% from the foul line while allowing 65.7 PPG on 39.7% shooting from the field and 31.6% from three this season.
East Carolina is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 road games and 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games following a win while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Temple is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 home games and 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games overall while the over is 6-2-1 in their last 9 games following a win.
I get the case to be made for Temple at home here, but East Carolina silenced a lot of critics, myself included, with their performance against Tulane and it’s not like Temple is that far off from Tulane. I will side with East Carolina in this one.