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March 19, 2010 | AP Press

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Confident, relaxed and definitely on their game.

Cornell lived up to its billing as the best team to come out of the Ivy League in more than a decade, and now the senior-heavy Big Red have a chance for a nice run in the East Regional of the NCAA tournament.

“Everyone was saying we were Cinderella or it’s an upset. Not us,” sophomore Chris Wroblewski said Friday after the 12th-seeded Big Red dominated No. 5 seed Temple 78-65 in a game that wasn’t even that close.

Down to their last chance to experience success on college basketball’s biggest stage, seniors Ryan Wittman, Louis Dale and Jeff Foote paced the school to its first win in five NCAA appearances.

Dale scored 21 points and Wittman, the Ivy League player of the year, had 20 for the Big Red, who led the nation in 3-point shooting this season and have three other elements — strong guard play, experienced leadership and a 7-foot center in Foote — that make them a threat to play beyond the first weekend of the tournament.

Cornell (28-4) made eight of its first 10 shots and never looked back, shooting 68 percent in the opening half and 56 percent for the game.

Temple (29-6) lost in the first round for the third straight year under coach Fran Dunphy, whose former assistant, Steve Donahue, has led Cornell to three straight Ivy League titles and the winningest season in school history.

Juan Fernandez and Ryan Brooks each had 14 points for Temple. Lavoy Allen added 11.

Having gone through a non-conference schedule that included games against Kansas, Syracuse, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Alabama, Donahue felt the Big Red was better equipped this year to face a tough, physical opening-round opponent such as Temple, one of the nation’s stingiest defensive teams.

Cornell lost by 24 to Stanford in 2008 and 19 to Missouri a year ago, and entered this year’s tournament determined to make the most of the last opportunity Wittman, Foote, Dale and fellow senior Jon Jaques have to enjoy the NCAA’s.

Dunphy, who’s been at Temple since 2006, fell to 1-12 in the NCAA tournament and has lost 11 straight.

The Owls coach appeared in the tournament nine times in 17 seasons at Penn, where Donahue was an assistant under him for 10 years. They remain close, and the mentor freely admitted he did not relish the idea of facing the pupil on Friday.

“I’m torn right now with the feeling in my stomach,” Donahue said after his first win over his former boss.

Temple trailed 37-29 at the half and was fortunate to be that close. The Owls uncharacteristically turned the ball over nine times, with Cornell coming up with seven steals while playing tight man-to-man defense and occasionally switching to a 1-3-1 zone that made it difficult to get the ball inside.

Cornell’s lead would have bigger if its 3-point shooters hadn’t struggled from beyond the arc. The Big Red were 13 of 19 from the field at the break, and five of those six misses were 3-pointers that could have left Temple in a deeper hole.

After misfiring on its first two 3-point attempts of the second half, Cornell’s shooters caught fire. Jon Jacques hit a long 3, then Wittman made three straight during a stretch in which the Big Red weathered another Temple surge to lead 51-42.

The closest Temple would get the rest of the way was seven.

“Wittman just went crazy with those 3s. We’re trying to get back in the game and he’s not allowing it,” Dunphy said.

Dunphy’s lone victory in the NCAA’s came in 1994, when Penn beat Nebraska. He lost his next eight tournament games with the Quakers and now his first three with Temple, including losses to Michigan State and Arizona State the past two years.

Cornell, which has won 16 of 17 games since a 5-point road loss at Kansas on Jan. 6, became the first Ivy League team to win an NCAA tournament game since fifth-seeded Princeton took down No. 12 seed UNLV in 1998.

“This is our last chance to do this,” said Foote, who had 16 points and seven rebounds. “It’s nice to see all our hard work for four years pay off.”

AP Photo

March 20, 2009 | AP Press

MIAMI — On the eve of Arizona State’s first NCAA tournament game since 2003, James Harden had teammates laughing when he teased point guard Derek Glasser about being reluctant to shoot.

So when Harden had trouble getting going Friday against Temple, guess who came to the rescue?

Glasser scored a career-high 22 points, and the Sun Devils overcame a second consecutive subpar performance by Harden to win 66-57.

“It was one of those games where my shot wasn’t falling,” said Harden, the Pac-10 player of the year. “My teammates picked it up, definitely — Derek throughout the entire game.”

Harden scored nine points, less than half his average. And while he made only one shot, it was a big one: a 3-pointer with 4:02 left that helped to squelch a Temple comeback.

Glasser also connected from behind the arc. The junior went 4-for-5 on 3s as Arizona State (25-9) reached the 25-win milestone for the first time since 1975.

Seeded sixth in the South Region, the Sun Devils will play Sunday against Syracuse (27-9), which beat Stephen F. Austin 59-44.

No. 11-seed Temple (22-12) was eliminated in the opening round for the second year in a row and hasn’t won a tournament game since 2001. Senior Dionte Christmas scored 29 in his final game for the Owls.

“If you would have told us that James Harden would have ended up with nine points and I would have had 29 points and we lost the game, I would have thought you were crazy,” Christmas said.

Harden went 1-for-8. The performance was reminiscent of last week’s Pac-10 tournament championship game, when he missed a free throw, layup and 3-pointer in the final minute and scored 10 points in a loss to Southern Cal.

Against Temple he went more than 14 minutes in the first half without an attempt. He encountered heavy traffic every time he penetrated and had three shots blocked, but he did finish with seven rebounds, three steals and three assists. He went 6-for-9 from the line.

“The best part about James is he’s all about the team,” coach Herb Sendek said. “Just because it wasn’t his day, because he wasn’t the centerpiece, he didn’t disengage from his team. He recognizes the contributions other guys make.”

Temple never led and trailed by eight midway through the second half before making a charge. Christmas scored three consecutive baskets to cut the margin to 52-49, its smallest deficit since early in the game, but the Owls could get no closer.

After Harden missed his first six shots, his 3-pointer put Arizona State ahead 56-49. He sank a pair of free throws on the Sun Devils’ next possession, and they led by at least four the rest of the way.

“The last couple of minutes I started to be a little more aggressive and just create,” Harden said. “Throughout the game I didn’t play my best, but the last couple minutes I wanted to give my all and go out with a fight.”

Temple went 0-for-5 in the last 3:45. The Sun Devils held Christmas without a basket in the final 5:02.

“Those guys paid a little bit more attention to me than they were in the beginning of the game,” Christmas said. “Those guys were switching off more aggressively on me.”

The Sun Devils clinched the win by making six consecutive free throws in the final 40 seconds, including four by Glasser.

While Harden struggled offensively, his teammates combined to shoot 19-for-31 (61 percent). Jeff Pendergraph went 8-for-14 and scored 22 points. Glasser had 17 points in the first half alone.

“Our offense just created open looks for me,” Glasser said. “I was open, so I took them.”

“Derek has been playing his career-best basketball here the last couple weeks,” Sendek said. “He’s a significantly better shooter. He has really worked hard on that part of his game, and it has helped our team tremendously.”

Arizona State made six shots in a row, including three by Glasser, to build its biggest lead at 29-16 less than 12 minutes into the game.

The Sun Devils went the next eight possessions without a point, and Temple closed to 29-26. Glasser then sank consecutive 3-pointers, giving Arizona State a 35-26 lead.

Christmas played all 40 minutes and finished 5-for-11 from 3-point range, but the rest of the Owls shot only 11-for-35 (31 percent) from the field. Semaj Inge went 0-for-10.

“We had our looks,” coach Fran Dunphy said. “We did not take advantage of it, as we need to in a game of this magnitude.”

March 14, 2009

By John Lamb | A10CollegeHoops.com

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – Dionte Christmas and the Temple Owls are going to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row after an exciting 69-64 victory over the Duquesne Dukes at Boardwalk Hall on Saturday night.

There was a lot of speculation before the game as to whether Temple could grab an at-large bid. Now that they won the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament they don’t need to worry if their name gets called on Selection Sunday but when.

Christmas led the way with a game-high 29 points on 10-of-24 shooting including 7-of-16 from beyond the arc. His performances throughout the tournament were good enough to garner a spot on the All-Championship Team as well as the Most Outstanding Performer award.

“The only thing I had on my mind was winning the Championship and playing my butt off today to get this title,” said Christmas, who became just the second player in league history to be named the MOP twice. “I thought every shot I shot today was going in.”

“I didn’t even think about the previous game or how bad I was shooting in the previous game. I just knew how good I was going to play today and how good I can shoot today. That was the only thing on my mind.”

Christmas was joined on the All-Championship Team by Sergio Olmos and Ryan Brooks. Both played an integral part in getting the Owls to the Big Dance for the second straight year.

Olmos clearly presented a match up problem for the Dukes in the paint and the Owls exploited it early as the 7-0 center scored seven of his 14 points in the first seven minutes of the game. He pulled down nine rebounds – six of which were of the offensive variety – and blocked three shots in 35 minutes of play.

He had the unenviable task of defending Duquesne’s Damian Saunders, a speedy 6-7 forward, for most of the game. Although Saunders finished the game with 15 points and a team-high 10 rebounds Olmos was satisfied with the way things turned out when all was said and done.

“I’m kind of slow so it was a tough match up,” said Olmos after the game. “[Saunders] tried to take advantage of his speed and I think I did a good job of taking advantage of my height.”

Brooks proved again that he is the Owls best shooter in clutch situations. The junior guard scored 14 points for the Owls but none were bigger than the three-pointer he hit with 4:12 remaining in the game to extend the Owls lead to eight and put the game out of reach.

Brooks plays hard on both ends of the court and Dunphy pointed out the fact that Duquesne’s Aaron Jackson scored seven straight points in the span of 41 seconds while he was on the bench to reiterate just how important the junior out of Lower Merion, PA is to Temple’s success.

“I would have loved to have the luxury of bringing [Brooks] off the bench for his whole career but we can’t be out on the court too much without him,” said Dunphy of his first official Temple recruit. “I don’t like to be out on the court too much without him, that’s the type of kid he is. He’s just tremendous.”

Temple’s Lavoy Allen was also a big factor for the Owls as he notched his 13th double-double of the season to the tune of 10 points and 11 rebounds. Allen’s ability to play around the perimeter allowed Sergio Olmos to do what he does best – park himself near the basket.

Even though Temple led most of the way, Ron Everhart’s Dukes, a team with two sophomores and eight freshmen on the roster, certainly proved that they will be a formidable opponent for years to come in the Atlantic 10.

“I’m not trying to say that we didn’t want to go to the NCAA tournament because we obviously did,” said Everhart. “However, I feel like the run that we made here and the way that we played, I think it will help our basketball team. It laid a tremendous and solid foundation for years to come.”

Perhaps the most important part of that foundation is Melquan Bolding. While the freshman only scored seven points on 3-of-9 shooting his performances throughout the tournament were good enough to land him a spot on the All-Championship Team.

Bolding averaged 14 points per game in tournament play, almost five points above his season average. His three-point shooting against Dayton was instrumental in getting the Dukes through to the championship round.

For a while in the first half it looked as if the Dukes were a team of destiny. The teams traded baskets for most of the half with Duquesne actually taking the lead with 4:22 remaining thanks to a three-pointer by Saunders.

The Owls regained the lead for good late in the first half thanks to Christmas’ efforts. He scored eight of his team’s last 10 points of the half to allow Temple to take a 42-37 advantage into the break.

“We know what Christmas is capable of doing,” Jackson, who was also named to the All-Championship Team, said. “The way he reads screens and reads the defense was incredible. He was hard to defend.”

Both teams did not do a great job of defending in the first half as each squad shot exceptionally well. The Dukes shot 53.6 percent (15-of-28) while the Owls shot 51.6 percent (16-of-31).

While the Dukes will likely wait and see where they will be seeded in the National Invitational Tournament, Dunphy’s Owls can sit back and enjoy the moment.

“The next 24 hours are fabulous to be honest with you,” said Dunphy. “I’m so happy for the guys, going to the NCAA Tournament, and there’s no feeling quite like this.”

GAME NOTES:
Temple claimed their 8th Atlantic 10 Championship in the 15th appearance which is the most by any member school past or present on both counts…They are now 8-7 in championship games…Temple is the first team to repeat as A-10 champions since the Owls won it in 2000 and 2001…This will be the 27th NCAA tournament appearance in Temple history…The Owls are now 5-0 against Duquesne in the A-10 Championship…Duquesne is now 1-2 in A-10 title games…Duquesne’s 21wins are the most since the 1971 NCAA team and their 38 wins over the past two seasons are the most since 1980-1981.

POST GAME AUDIO:
Dionte Christmas, Ryan Brooks, Sergio Olmos and Fran Dunphy Post Game Comments

John Lamb can be reached at johnlamb@a10collegehoops.com

Click Here to join the live blog.

AP Photo

March 13, 2009

By John Lamb | A10CollegeHoops.com

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – Dionte Christmas may have finally found the shot that has been eluding him for much of the season. The senior guard scored six big points down the stretch as the Owls toppled the top seeded Xavier Musketeers 55-53 at Boardwalk Hall on Friday night.

Christmas scored a game-high 20 points for the Owls. He admitted after the game that he wanted the ball in his hands down the stretch. On the Owls next-to-last possession he had the opportunity to pass the ball off to open teammates but instead he took B.J. Raymond one-on-one and and made the tough three that put them ahead for good.

The Owls received big-time contributions from their other two seniors as Sergio Olmos was a force down low with four blocks and Semaj Inge hit some important free-throws down the stretch. Inge finished with seven points while Olmos chipped in five.

Lavoy Allen also was instrumental for the Owls as he single handedly kept them in the game in the first half. All six of his first half rebounds were on the offensive glass. Eight of his 10 points came in the first twenty minutes. He finished the game with a double-double (10 points, 11 rebounds).

Ryan Brooks scored all nine of his points in the first half. The junior guard made his presence known on the boards as he grabbed seven rebounds.

The real story for the Owls was Christmas. After a disappointing first half in which he scored seven points on 2-of-5 shooting, the senior scored 13 points in the second with seven coming in the last two minutes of the game.

While Christmas has contended vociferously that his slump has not done anything to detract from his confidence it was pretty obvious that some of the weight on his shoulders was alleviated after tonight’s performance.

Raymond said after the game that he felt he played good defense on Christmas down the stretch but that sometimes “great players just make great shots.”

Xavier coach Sean Miller said after the game that losing in the semifinals may be a blessing in disguise as it gives his team an extra day to refocus on the ultimate goal: the NCAA Championship.

The Musketeers were led by their dynamic duo of Derrick Brown (19 points and 11 rebounds) and Raymond (18 points). They did not get much more help on the offensive end.

C.J. Anderson was 0-for-9 with no points scored in 30 minutes of play. Dante Jackson was in foul trouble for most of the game and ended with six points in 23 minutes.

Jason Love, Jamel McLean, Kenny Frease and Terrell Holloway finished the game with 10 points between them.

Miller said after the game that Xavier’s previous losses this season were due to the defense not showing up. This time his team played solid defense but simply could not score the ball.

To be honest, neither team shot the ball exceptionally well. The Owls shot 35 percent for the game while Xavier shot 34.5 percent. Xavier was more successful shooting from three-point range as they went 8-for-18 while the Owls on shot 4-of-17.

It was Temple’s ability to get to the line that ultimately got them over the hump. The Owls made 15 free-throws; Xavier only attempted nine.

Temple awaits the winner over Friday night’s second semifinal that will be contested between the Dayton Flyers and the Duquesne Dukes. The Owls have the chance to become the first repeat A-10 champions since…the Temple Owls of the ‘99-00 and ‘00-01 seasons.

Post Game Audio:
Fran Dunphy, Dionte Christmas and Ryan Brooks Post Game Comments
Sean Miller, B.J. Raymond and Derrick Brown Post Game Comments

AP Photo

March 12, 2009 | AP Press

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Ryan Brooks had 19 points to lead four players in double figures and lift Temple over Saint Joseph’s 79-65 in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament on Thursday.

Sergio Olmos had 14 points and Semaj Inge and Craig Williams added 12 apiece for the defending champion Owls (20-11), who will now face No. 19 Xavier in a semifinal game Friday. Tasheed Carr matched his career high with 23 points and Ahmad Nivins had 21 points and 14 rebounds for Saint Joseph’s (17-15).

The Owl, who were in command for most of the game, led 43-28 at halftime and stretched their advantage to 22 points, 58-36, with 10:15 left. The Hawks then got as close as nine when Darrin Govens converted a layup to make it 65-56 with 4:31 remaining, but Lavoy Allen scored two straight baskets and the Owls maintained double-digit leads for the rest of the game.

AP Photo

March 7, 2009 | AP Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lavoy Allen scored 17 points and grabbed 16 rebounds to lead Temple to a 63-53 win over George Washington on Saturday night in the final regular-season game for both teams.

The Owls (19-11, 11-5 Atlantic 10 Conference) had a season-high 55 rebounds in defeating the Colonials for the first time in Washington since 2002.

George Washington (10-18, 4-12), which failed to secure a berth in the 12-team league tournament, trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half and 32-24 at the half.

Temple increased its lead to 10 points on an Allen layup with 19:28 left, and the Colonials never got within single digits again.

George Washington shot 35.2 percent from the field (19 of 54) while Temple shot 24-for-74 (32.4 percent) and 9-for-32 from 3-point range.

Damian Hollis led the Colonials with 21 points. Rob Diggs had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

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

February 28, 2009 | AP Press

DAYTON, Ohio — Mickey Perry, Marcus Johnson and Charles Little each hit two foul shots in the final 41 seconds to help Dayton hang on for a 70-65 victory over Temple on Saturday.

Temple (17-11, 9-5 Atlantic 10) had trailed by 16 points with less than 6 minutes left before putting together a furious comeback that drew the Owls to 64-59 with just under a minute remaining.

But Perry hit two foul shots with 41 seconds left. After Dionte Christmas, who matched Ryan Brooks with 20 points for the Owls, hit a 3-pointer, Johnson hit two more free throws with 16 seconds remaining. Christmas hit another 3 with 9 seconds left before Little made both of his foul shots with 5 seconds remaining to close the scoring.

Chris Wright scored 20 points, Johnson had 14 and Perry 10 for the Flyers (24-5, 10-4). London Warren added nine rebounds, eight assists and four points.

AP Photo

February 26, 2009

John Lamb | A10CollegeHoops

PHILADELPHIA – Before tipoff, it was not too hard to imagine tonight’s game against La Salle as a trap game for Temple with Dayton, a game with NCAA and A-10 implications, on the schedule for Saturday.

Temple Head Coach Fran Dunphy stated that his staff has not spoken one word about Dayton this week. Senior Dionte Christmas said that the players were focused on La Salle and La Salle only.

It sure did not look that way as the Explorers (15-12, 6-7 A-10, 3-1 Big 5) were able to defeat the Owls (17-10, 9-4, 1-2) 70-63 at the Liacouras Center on Thursday night. The Explorers had never won a game in the Liacouras Center in seven previous attempts.

La Salle was led by junior Rodney Green who scored 22 points off the bench and dished out a game-high eight assists. This was the first game in close to two seasons that Green was not in the starting lineup for the Explorers. La Salle’s head coach Dr. John Giannini said that the shakeup was due, in part, to a change in philosophy after his team lost at home to Duquesne this past Sunday.

“I’ve been extremely loyal to great kids. Rodney’s recruiting class and Paul Johnson came to La Salle at a critical point in our program when it wasn’t a popular place to go,” said Giannini, who has guided the Explorers to their best Big 5 finish since the 4-0 Lionel Simmons team from 1989-90. “But, we feel at this point that we should be better than what we are and loyalty needs to be a two-way street.”

“What we’ve done is start guys who win in practice. Everyone played hard but we need to start to reward guys who win and that starts in practice. We had three October-type practices. We had practices were the winners got to start and guys who weren’t winning were not going to start. Every job is open. As much as I love Rodney, as much as I love all our guys we’re going to start to be more fair than loyal.”

Green did not seem too distraught about Giannini’s new approach: “You win in practice and you start. That’s how it should be. It’s good to see that it paid off today.”

Darryl Partin and Steve Weingarten were the surprise starters. Partin hit two three-pointers in the first half but missed all six of his shots in the second and finished the night with a 2-for-12 shooting line, including 2-of-8 from beyond the arc. Weingarten tied his career high with 2 points in 10 minutes on the court.

Kimmani Barret was also a big part of La Salle’s success. The junior guard scored 20 points with eight of them coming from the foul stripe. Temple repeatedly put the 74 percent free-throw shooter on the line down the stretch and he made them pay by going 5-of-7 in the second half.

Temple took a 34-31 lead into the half thanks to Ryan Brooks’ big shots. The Owls were down 28-27 with a little over three minutes left in the half when Christmas found Brooks alone in the corner on a fast break for a wide open three to regain the lead.

On the next Temple possession, Brooks was on the receiving end of a slick Juan Fernandez pass that led to an easy layup and pushed the Owls’ lead to four.

Both Brooks and Christmas finished the half with 11 points. Christmas went on to score a team-high 19 while  Brooks was held scoreless in the second half.

“Coach talked about it at halftime, we knew they got good shooters in Brooks and Christmas,” said Green. “We gave them some easy shots in the first half. We just had to stop them in the second half.”

The Owls could have taken a larger lead into the break but Semaj Inge picked up two costly fouls at once. He was hit with a technical foul after arguing with the referee on his original call of a reach-in on Barrett. He ended up hitting both technical free-throws and splitting the one-and-one.

Needless to say, Dunphy was not pleased with the way his senior captain reacted.

“Obviously Semaj said something that the official didn’t like,” said Dunphy. “It ruined the rhythm of where we were. It’s not something I was pleased about. You don’t ever want your guys to get technicals. I don’t get technicals so there is no need for the kids to get them.”

Both teams traded baskets and leads after the break. La Salle was able to build a five point lead with 8:44 remaining in the game. Inge hit a floating jumper to cut the lead to three and then Dionte Christmas stole the inbounds pass and hit a three to tie the game at 53 with 8:11.

Temple had all of the momentum at that point but, on the ensuing possession, Green hit a three-pointer from the top of the key to silence the crowd and put the Explorers on top for good.

“The biggest play of the game was when we tied it back up again and Rodney Green stepped up and made a huge three,” said Dunphy. “It was a terrific shot and they deserved to win the game. Their will was certainly greater than ours tonight.”

“[Rodney's] mindset was get it and run it right down our throat.”

The Owls had a chance to make things interesting at the end of the game as Green received an inbounds pass and then stepped on the baseline to give the ball back to Temple with 51 seconds left. Down only four points, Inge rushed a three-pointer that missed when he could have  driven to the basket. Green grabbed the rebound and the Explorers were able to hold on.

Christmas continued his recent trend poor shooting from behind the three-point line. He shot 3-of-11 for the game from three. As a team, the Owls shot just 29 percent (7-of-24).

The Owls received solid contributions from Sergio Olmos and Lavoy Allen. Olmos scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds. Allen nabbed 12 boards, to go along with eight points and three blocks.

Allen was a huge factor in Temple’s previous victory over La Salle at the Tom Gola Arena so it was a bit odd that he only took six shots. Dunphy said that it was a mixture of the Explorers’ defense and Temple’s perimeter players not looking for him enough.

The Explorers held a 42-34 rebounding advantage, including 16 offensive boards to Temple’s nine. La Salle was also able to get out in transition as they scored 22 fast break points to the Owls’ two.

Next up for the Owls is trip out to Dayton, Ohio for a showdown with the Flyers on Saturday afternoon. La Salle will welcome UMass to the Tom Gola Arena on Sunday afternoon.

POST GAME AUDIO: (right click and save as.. if you have trouble opening)
Dr. John Giannini and Rodney Green Press Conference
Fran Dunphy and Dionte Christmas Press Conference

John Lamb can be reached at johnlamb@a10collegehoops.com