Temple 90, George Washington 77: Will Cummings had 21 points as the host Owls hit a season scoring high in downing the Colonials in a second-round NIT game.

Jesse Morgan added a season-high 20 points, including four 3-pointers, for Temple (25-10), which never trailed and will host the winner of Monday’s Texas A&M-Louisiana Tech game in the quarterfinals Wednesday. The Owls – who also received 13 points from Devin Coleman, 11 points from Josh Brown and eight points and a game-high 15 rebounds from Jaylen Bond – shot 50.8 percent from the field, hit 21-of-24 free throws and finished with a 38-26 rebounding advantage.

Kethan Savage scored a career-high 25 off the bench to pace George Washington (22-13), which lost its seventh straight against its former Atlantic 10 Conference rival. Kevin Larsen added 19 points and seven rebounds and Yuta Watanabe had 15 points for the Colonials, whose 10-of-20 performance from 3-point range wasn’t enough to pull off a second straight NIT road win.

George Washington, which trailed 38-30 at halftime, opened the second half with a 7-2 run to close within 40-37, but Temple countered with an 11-4 spurt to stretch its advantage to 51-41. A three-point play from Larsen cut the Colonials’ deficit to 62-54 with 9:01 to play before the Owls took firm control with a 16-6 spree to take a 78-60 lead with 3:54 left, and the visitors only got as close as 13 the rest of the way.

Temple dominated early, scoring the game’s first nine points, and as led by as much as 20-5 before Savage and Watanabe hit 3-pointers in the final minute of the opening half to pull George Washington within eight at the break. Morgan (15) and Cummings (nine) combined for 24 of the Owls’ 38 points in the opening 20 minutes while Bond grabbed 11 rebounds.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Temple, playing in its 18th NIT, is now 22-15 all-time in the tourney as it seeks its third championship. … The Owls have hit 42-of-50 free throws while committing only 13 turnovers in their back-to-back tourney wins. … George Washington fell to 1-5 in five all-time NIT appearances.