Chronicowls '13- Meeting of the Owls

The Owls of Temple hosted their counterparts from Rice University, in the 2012-13 hoops season opener at the Liacouras Center. And the wise Owls prevailed, relying upon their experienced seniors (Hollis-Jefferson, Wyatt, and Randall) and two grad students (DiLeo and O'Brien)to outlast the visitors. By the way, Temple and Rice are two of four Division I basketball programs to use the "Owls" moniker. Not present on the Liacouras Center floor Saturday night were Florida Atlantic and Kennesaw State.
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The Liacouras Center, now in its 16th year, has gone high-tech. Welcome news for the "Temple fan experience". A new center-hung scoreboard consisting of four video screens and featuring high-definition quality visuals for live action, replays, game animations, team logos, student athlete introductions and real-time statistics. And that's not all. Complementing the center-hung scoreboard is  a new   LED ribbon system spread (or wrap-around)across the Liacouras Center's 200 Level façade. Very impressive. One glitch noted by last night's attendees - lighting varies in intensity depending upon the background of the advertising being shown on the wraparound. I'm confident it will be worked out.
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The Owls are comfortable in their nest - they have won 36 of their last 38 games  at home.
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 Temple clearly looked to be the superior side early on, jumping out to a 16-5 lead. For the next seven minutes, the Owls scored but seven points, and found themselves tied at 23. Rice stayed close (they were within one point of Temple with 9 minutes remaining in the game) but never took the lead.
Keys to Temple's win: twice as many assists (16) as turnovers (8) and making 10 of 11 free throws in the second half.
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The Owls bench  -- comprised of T.J. DiLeo, Dalton Pepper, Jake O'Brien, Quenton DeCosey and Dan Dingle and considered to be a strength of the team-- posted just five points and didn't register a single basket until five minutes remained in the game. The Temple bench was outscored by Rice's,
18-5, and went 1-for-11 shooting.
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Good-sized crowd last night (almost 7000) , spirited student section (the Wild Cherry), and a full complement of enthusiastic pep band members. All enjoyed a highly entertaining halftime performance by a rope-skipping, somersaulting troupe whose show was one of the best in years.
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The oddsmakers had  Temple favored by 14. Final score: Temple Owls 77 - Rice Owls 63.