No. 10 Kansas upset by Temple

PHILADELPHIA — The lead never changed after Temple jumped out to a 7-0 advantage to start the game. A career-high 20 points from Frank Mason and nine second-half points by Kelly Oubre, Jr. led the short list of highlights from No. 10 Kansas’ upset at Temple Monday night inside the Wells Fargo Center, 77-52.

When guards Jesse Morgan and Devin Coleman, became eligible to compete in Temple’s (8-4) last outing, the duo certainly made their mark with seven threes between them. In his second game, this time against top-10 Kansas (9-2), Morgan hit three three-pointers and tallied 17 points to hand the Jayhawks their worst upset to an unranked opponent in the Bill Self era. Aside from the newcomers, Temple was led by senior Will Cummings’ 19 points and Quenton Decosey’s 18.

Temple hosted Kansas (9-2) away from his usual home of the Liacouras Center on campus and instead played the Jayhawks in the Wells Fargo Center. Although the crowd of 11,188 was heavily peppered with Crimson and Blue, those supporting the Owls rushed the court when Temple down its first top-10 opponent in two years.

Mason’s career-high 20 points made him the only Jayhawk in double-figures as KU was held to its second-lowest shooting percentage of the season (32.1 percent). Oubre finished behind him with nine, despite the fact that he didn’t score in the opening 20 minutes. Sophomore guard Wayne Selden, Jr. and junior forward Perry Ellis scored six and five points, respectively. In the second half, however, just Oubre, Mason and freshman Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk were the only KU players to hit a shot.

The night began with an ominous tone as KU made just one of its first nine shots and needed three-and-a-half minutes to score its first points. Little mistakes, like Mykhailiuk flailing the ball out of bounds, resulted in points on the other end. A three-pointer from Cummings ignited the three-point warfare. Newly instated Owls, Morgan and Coleman, each connected from behind the arc to put KU down by double-figures, even when KU tried to level the playing field with threes from Mason and sophomore Brannen Greene.

KU could not get out of the funk. The Jayhawks turned the ball over under the Temple basket, which Owl forward Jaylen Bond slammed back through the hoop. Another of KU’s 13 first-half turnovers made its way down the court for a pair of Williams’ free throws and a 24-10 Jayhawk deficit. Kansas finished the evening with just four turnovers in the second half, but was plagued by an 8-of-31 shooting accuracy.

With no choice but to weather and withstand the brutal start, the Jayhawks tried to start chipping away. Five-straight points from Selden were followed by a blocked shot by freshman forward Cliff Alexander, who sent the outlet pass up the floor for an Ellis layup. Temple made sure that every possession required grueling work just to get a decent look at the basket. Traylor used a solidly athletic move to score under the hoop, but Kansas still appeared doomed to take its largest deficit of the game to halftime.

Always the spark plug, Mason saved a broken play with a fade-away three and didn’t stop there. With a single second on the clock, he drilled his third three of the half to send his team to the lockerroom down, 35-25.

Kansas returned to laboring out of the break. The first made free throw of the game saw KU finally dip back within single digits, 35-26, and Oubre tallied his first points of the game with a pair of layups.

Unfortunately for a Jayhawk squad fighting for footing, those marked KU’s only made shots through the first 13 attempts to open the final frame. Oubre broke the drought with another layup, but Temple again had answers. Morgan’s consecutive threes saw the Owls take a 20-point lead. His three-point play that followed pushed the home team to its biggest lead of the night. Kansas would never recover.

UP NEXT

Kansas returns home to Allen Fieldhouse for a Dec. 30 game versus Kent State at 7 p.m., on Jayhawk IMG Network/ESPN Full Court/ESPN3. The Jayhawks will close out non-conference play when they host UNLV on Sunday, Jan. 4, at either 12:30 or 3:30 p.m. (Central), on CBS. The time will be determined once the NFL playoff schedule is set for that weekend. KU, 10-time defending Big 12 regular-season champion, will open conference play at Baylor on Wednesday, Jan. 7, at 8 p.m., on ESPNU.

Temple 77, (10/10) Kansas 52
Postgame Notes

December 23, 2014

KU STARTERS (Season/Career Starts): So. G Frank Mason, III (11/14), So. G Wayne Selden, Jr. (11/46), Fr. G Kelly Oubre, Jr. (3/3), Jr. F Perry Ellis (11/48), Fr. F Cliff Alexander (1/1)

SERIES INFO: Kansas leads, 8-4

ATTENDANCE: 11,188 (19,500 capacity)

KANSAS’ LOSS…

• Snapped Kansas’ winning streak at eight games, which was KU’s longest since an 18-game winning streak during the 2012-13 season.
• Made Kansas 9-2 or better for the fifth time in the Bill Self era.
• Dropped KU’s record away from Allen Fieldhouse to 5-2 this season and 1-1 in true road games.
• Made Kansas 8-4 all-time versus Temple and 60-17 against current membership of the American Athletic Conference.
• Moved Self to 334-71 while at Kansas, 541-176 overall and 4-1 all-time against Temple.
• Made KU 2,135-824 all-time.

TEAM NOTES

• The Jayhawks’ 25-point loss marked their first 20+ point loss to an unranked opponent since falling to Oklahoma, 95-72, on Jan. 19, 1983. It tied the worst true road loss to an opponent in the Bill Self era since falling at No. 7 Texas on Feb. 25, 2006 (80-55).
• Monday marked the two-year anniversary of Temple’s last victory over a top-10 opponent. The Owls defeated No. 3 Syracuse, 83-79, inside Madison Square Garden on Dec. 22, 2012.
• Kansas fell behind 7-0 before Frank Mason III made a layup with 16:31 showing on the clock. That was nearly two minutes longer than KU’s longest dry spell to start a game this season (18:17 vs. Kentucky).
• Just two days prior, KU committed just five turnovers in its game against Lafayette. That number tied for the fewest by a Kansas squad since the 1988-89 campaign. On Monday, KU doubled that number just 12 minutes. By game’s end KU tied its season-high with 17 turnovers, 13 of which came in the first half.
• KU went 0-for-3 from the free throw line in the first half, the first time the Jayhawks did not connect from the charity stripe in a frame since the first half against Michigan (3/29/13).
• In the last four games (or eight halves), Kansas has drained five or more three-pointers in six of those halves. KU’s 5-of-11 three-point shooting in the first half and marked the eighth time this season that KU made five in a half.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

• Sophomore G Frank Mason III extended his double-digit scoring streak to eight games. He led all players with 13 points at halftime and finished with a career-high 20 points. He also swiped a career-high three steals.
• Mason III was 4-of-6 from three-point range and has now tallied at least one three-pointer in nine of his 11 outings this season and is 10-of-16 from three in his last five outings.
• Freshman G Kelly Oubre, Jr. did not score in the first half, yet was the only scorer for a good chunk of the second half. KU started the second half 4-of-18 from the field – all four of those makes were Oubre’s. The first Jayhawk other than Oubre to hit a shot in the second half was Mason with 9:26 to play. Freshman G Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk was the only other Jayhawk to hit a shot in the half.
• Freshman F Cliff Alexander made his first career start on Monday, but scored two points and grabbed three rebounds.