The Wildcats can only hope so.
After a strong first quarter, Temple struggled on both ends of the floor in its 64-42 opening-night loss to Georgetown at Wildcat Gym.
“We did some good things out there but we weren’t consistent,” Thomas said. “You learn a lot sometimes from adversity. We’re going to take this and learn from it and get better. Every team I’ve ever coached got better after a loss than they did after a win.”
Things got off to a good enough start for the Wildcats, who led 14-10 at the end of the first quarter. Temple harassed Georgetown with its full-court press defense, forcing 11 turnovers. Forwards Eric Valdez and Ray Williams controlled the paint and combined to score all of the Wildcats’ first-quarter points. Valdez scored eight of his team-high 16 points in the opening quarter.
But the Eagles found ways to exploit the Wildcats’ defense from there. Temple especially had trouble containing guard Xavier Williamson in transition and off the dribble. He scored 12 of his game-high 28 points in the second quarter.
Georgetown took the lead for the first time midway through the second quarter with a 7-0 run, spurred by a layup and a 3-pointer by Williamson.
The Wildcats answered with a quick 6-0 spurt, including a layup by D.J. Wright and a dunk by Williams to take a 27-25 lead with 49.6 seconds left in the first half.
But Georgetown scored seven points in the final 30 seconds, including Michael Hardge’s 3 at the buzzer for a 32-27 halftime lead.
Temple never answered in the second half, done in by cold shooting. The Wildcats made just seven field goals in the second half, including a 2-of-11 mark in a third quarter in which Temple scored five points.
For the game, Temple shot 17-of-56 from the field.
Georgetown did most of its damage in the second half, repeatedly burning the Wildcats in transition for easy layups. The Eagles led by as many as 14 points in the second half and hit 19 of 24 shots.
“We don’t like to give up those layups and we gave up quite a few,” Thomas said. “We’ve got to get better transition defense. It’s going to take repetition."
Temple will host Leander at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Wildcat Gym as part of the CenTex Shootout.
rschneider@temple-telegram.com
