The Houston Cougars and the Temple Owls meet in college basketball action from the Liacouras Center on Sunday afternoon.
The Houston Cougars come into this game on the heels of an 80-47 win over Texas State in their last game. Marcus Sasser leads the Cougars in scoring with 17.7 PPG while Kyler Edwards has 12.5 PPG with 5.7 RPG and Tramon Mark and Fabian White Jr. each have 10+ PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for Houston so far this season. However, Edwards is out indefinitely and Sasser and Mark are each done for the season with respective injuries. J’Wan Roberts leads the Cougars in rebounding with 7 RPG while Jamal Shead has a team-high 5.7 APG to lead Houston in the assist department this season. As a team, Houston is averaging 79.4 PPG on 48% shooting from the field, 37.3% from three and 64.4% from the foul line while allowing 56 PPG on 37% shooting from the field and 28.6% from three this season.
The Temple Owls will try to build some steam after an 85-48 win over Delaware State last time out. Damian Dunn is the only active double-digit scorer for Temple with 13.6 PPG and a team-high 5.2 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 9.2 PPG with a team-high 4.7 APG to lead the Owls in assists. As a team, Temple is averaging 67.6 PPG on 40.2% shooting from the field, 28.5% from three and 69.1% from the foul line while allowing 66 PPG on 39.9% shooting from the field and 32.7% from three this season.
Houston is 9-3 ATS in their last 12 games overall and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall. Temple is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record and 2-5 ATS in their last 7 Sunday games while the under is 5-2 in their last 7 games against a team with a winning record.
I get the case to be made for a home dog in certain spots, but Temple isn’t the kind of team to hang with Houston here as the Owls have been beat up in a lot of their step up spots this season, like they were against Clemson, Boise State and UCF. Houston’s done more against less and even without Edwards, Sasser and Mark, the latter two out for the year, I still think it’s next man up for Houston so give me the Cougars in this one.