The Temple Owls traded blows in the first half with No. 12 UCF Knights, but the defending national champions dominated the second half in the 52-40 win on Thursday night.
Temple gave UCF their toughest test yet of the season, but the Knights took hold of first place in the AAC East as Temple, Cincinnati and USF all have one conference loss each.
The Owls led for most of the first half and entered the break with a 34-28 lead following the first of two receiving touchdowns from Ventell Bryant with 18 seconds remaining.