AP Photo

March 5, 2009 by John Lamb | A10CollegeHoops

PHILADELPHIA – Thursday night’s game has assuredly been circled on the calendar of many a Temple fan . Forget the fact that it was Senior Night for the Owls or that this game was essentially for  a  first-round bye in the Atlantic 10 tournament.

This was Temple and Saint Joe’s. For a myriad of reasons this rivalry has become the most heated and competitive rivalry in the Big 5 and is right up there with the clashes that Xavier and Dayton have yearly in the Atlantic 10.

Last year, Pat Calathes hit the game-winning three-pointer with 3.9 seconds left to steal a 68-67 victory at the Liacouas Center. This year, the Owls were looking for revenge on their home court.

Fittingly, Temple’s seniors led the way as the Owls (18-11, 10-5 A-10) clipped the Hawks (15-14, 8-7) 68-59.

Dionte Christmas led all scorers with 23 points. He had gone over a month without breaking the 20 point plateau. Temple coach Fran Dunphy stated after the game that Christmas let it be known that “he was not going to let [Temple] lose.”

“Today I told myself that, no matter what happened, I wasn’t going to let my team lose,” said Christmas. “One, we definitely needed to win this game and another, this was Senior Night – my last game here – and I didn’t want to go out the wrong way.”

Christmas was helped out by the contributions of Sergio Olmos and Semaj Inge. Olmos scored 14 point and, most importantly, played tough defense on Saint Joseph’s star Ahmad Nivins. Although he scored 17 points and pulled down 16 rebounds, the Hawks big man shot only 6-for-16 from the floor and found himself having to work for every inch down low against the Owls seven-footer.

“Serg didn’t get a whole lot of help, he was pretty much on [Nivins] by himself,” Dunphy said. “As good as he was offensively, and he was very good, I thought he was terrific defensively.”

Olmos understood that he had to bring his A-game to be successful in slowing down one of the A-10’s premier players.

“He’s a great player and you really have to be physical,” said Olmos, who has rebounded nicely since returning to the starting lineup. “When he wants he can get very deep position and he’s got plenty of moves down there. But I think I did a pretty good job and my teammates also helped me. I think it was a great team effort.”

Semaj Inge also added to his reputation for being a pain in the neck for the Hawks. He filled the stat sheet with a line to the tune of nine points, three assists, two blocks and four steals.

The Hawks were able to cut Temple’s lead to two points with just under 15 minutes left in the second half after a fast break dunk by Nivins. Whatever Dunphy told his players during the ensuing timeout seemed to resonate as the Owls broke the game open with an 18-6 run that was sparked by the three-point shooting of Craig Williams and Christmas.

Williams finished the game with 11 points and a career-high nine rebounds. His playing time had been scarce before tonight’s contest but Dunphy made it clear that he is an integral part of this team.

“[Williams] is critical because he adds such a different dimension to our team,” said Dunphy. “We need him. He had some personal issues that he dealt with for the Dayton game and he did not play very well or long against La Salle. He is an interesting player, a talented guy. He’s not a great athlete, he’s not going to get side to side real fast at any point and he’s not going to go up and dunk a lot of balls but he has great hands. When he catches the ball and rebounds the ball, it’s his.”

Juan Fernandez also had an impressive game for the Temple. The freshman point guard scored five points and dished out five assists to go along with four rebounds. He made two dynamic passes that drew plenty of “Oohs” from the crowd on back-to-back possessions early in the first half that led to easy layups for Williams and Inge respectively.

“[Fernandez is] a terrific basketball player. He got caught a few times on the defensive end tonight but he is a really good basketball player that knows what he is doing out there,” Dunphy stated. “I am hoping the next three and chance years will be spectacular years for him as well.”

It would not be a Big 5 game without at least one wacky stat. Only four of the eight Hawks who played tonight scored. The bench and starter Garrett Williamson shot a combined 0-for-12 from the floor. Needless to say, the Owls easily won the bench points battle 16-0.

For the game, the Hawks shot just 32 percent.

“We just played a Division I game and had four guys score,” said Hawks coach Phil Martelli when asked why his team has trouble scoring. “Some of it is skill set and some of it is a full out commitment to that way of playing. We had a number of layups that did not go in. Guys are trying they just didn’t make layups.”

Tasheed Carr led the Hawks with 22 points and five assists. Darrin Govens added 14 points and Idris Hilliard scored six.

The first 15 minutes of the game were controlled by the Saint Joseph’s as they led by as many as seven points. They seemed to have an answer for everything the Owls tried to do in the early going. It did not last for long as a Christmas three with 4:39 remaining broke a 21-21 tie and gave the Owls a lead that they never relinquished.

Saint Joe’s looked to establish themselves in the paint early and partly succeeded as Lavoy Allen picked up two quick fouls and watched most of the half from the bench. The Hawks, however, were only able to score four points in the paint to Temple’s 14.

Temple heads to Washinton D.C. on Saturday to take on the George Washington Colonials. If Duquesne is able to beat Dayton on the Flyers’ home court then Temple will move up the the three seed.

Saint Joe’s will travel to New York City to take on Fordham in a game that will go a long way in determining how the middle of the A-10 pack pans out going into the conference tournament.

POST GAME AUDIO:
Phil Martelli Post Game Press Conference
Fran Dunphy Press Conference
Dionte Christmas, Sergio Olmos and Semaj Inge Post Game Audio

John Lamb can be reached at johnlamb@a10collegehoops.com