No 23 Butler 74, Temple 69

The game finished with a banked-in three from Mike Robinson and it’s been that kind of start for the Miami Hurricanes who moved to 4-0 on the season with the 90-66 victory.

In two of his first three seasons as University of Minnesota basketball coach, his teams have played in the Maui Invitational in 2013 and the Puerto Rico Tip-Off this year.

Miami topped the 100-point mark for the first time since 2004.

Gavin Ware and Craig Sword each scored 20 points for the Bulldogs (1-2), who got no closer than 18 points after halftime. “Stepping out of bounds”. The Hurricanes also had just seven turnovers compared to 16 for Utah. Church posted a game-high 9 rebounds to go along with a 9-for-14 day at the foul line and a pair of blocked shots.

Joey King battled foul trouble – as most of the Gophers did – but connected on six 3-pointers to lead Minnesota with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting (6-of-7 on 3-point attempts).

Minnesota trailed, 49-38, early in the second half after giving up three three-pointers in the first five minutes.

But the move to a zone defense seemed to catch Minnesota off-guard, and as the Gophers shot just 33 percent from the floor in the second half, the Bears chipped into the lead. “I thought we let them loose for a few critical offensive rebounds in the first half that sort of got them where they needed to be”. “Then we had a few hiccups – couple bad shots, stepped out of bounds a few times”.

“It’s a really small sample size”, Holtmann said. “Today it didn’t happen”. Instead of answering, Morris stepped out of bounds at 6:47. But Coleman’s 3-pointer ended the drought and started the 15-2 run that put Temple back in front. Pitino was told he had a timeout left and called it, but the scorekeepers were mistaken and officials took it away. Temple forward Jaylen Bond added 13 points and 13 boards, nine on the offensive glass. The Owls got at least 10 points from four starters, but barely any production from their bench. Totals 23-60 19-26 75.

The Temple Owls are coming off a 75-70 win over Minnesota and hopes to get a game above a. 500 record. Temple’s losses have come against ranked opponents, starting with No. 1 North Carolina last week.

It wasn’t just the second-half turnovers that led to the disappointing loss in Puerto Rico.

“Defensive rebounding”, Mason said. “I talked to both guys after the game…I was disappointed in the way we finished the game with both of them in, because in my opinion if we didn’t have the performance from either one of them we would not have been in the winner’s circle”. “We’re going to play the way we want to play and try to be as efficient as we can be offensively and defensively”. “That’s all we can do”. We’re going to go in, watch film, flawless it and move on.