Temple 57, Saint Joseph's 44
Temple's seniors can scratch "beating Saint Joseph's" off their career to-do list. Now the Owls' trio who know nothing but NITs have the NCAA tournament in their sight. Antywane Robinson scored 18 points and Mardy Collins added 11 to lead Temple to its first win over Saint Joseph's in nearly four years, 57-44 on Tuesday night.
The Owls (14-9, 7-5 Atlantic 10) snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Hawks and won for only the third time in the last 13 games against their longtime Big 5 rival.
"It's a long time coming, I'd say," Robinson said. "It took four years to do it, but, hey, better late than never."
Robinson, Collins and Nehemiah Ingram are the three seniors who have never played an NCAA tournament game, the longest drought in coach John Chaney's 24 years at Temple. The losing streak against the Hawks only added to the sting of four seasons that failed to live up to their expectations.
"If somebody's always picking on you like that, you've got to come back and defend yourself sooner or later," Robinson said.
They surely needed the win to keep alive their NCAA tournament hopes. The Owls would need at least 20 wins to even think about returning to the tournament after four straight NITs, and with two of their last five regular-season games on the road and one on Feb. 25 against No. 2 Duke, that could be a long shot.
"You want to finish a season strong," Chaney said. "Our body of work speaks for itself."
The Hall of Fame coach, however, didn't take any added satisfaction in beating the Hawks for the first time since March 3, 2002.
"Nothing gets to me but these guys shooting poorly. Nothing," he said. "That's (the media's) frenzy, not mine. Temple's the winningest basketball team in this city. Remember that, as long as you live. We should not be ashamed of that. The only other team in this city that's close is Penn."
Abdulai Jalloh scored 11 points for the Hawks (10-12, 4-7). The darlings of college basketball only two years ago and an NIT finalist last season, Phil Martelli's team has struggled to score this year and is near the bottom of the A-10. Saint Joseph's has lost four of five.
"There's going to have to be something a little bit different," Martelli said. "All your creative juices have to come into play here."
While the Hawks didn't collapse nearly as bad in the second half as they did in each of their two losses in the last week to No. 4 Villanova and No. 7 George Washington, they couldn't make any sort of run because they kept turning the ball over and couldn't find anyone to consistently score.
Mark Tyndale swiped a pass and scored on a fast break dunk and Dustin Salisbery came out of nowhere for a left-handed dunk that keyed a 9-2 stretch early in the second half that gave the Owls a nine-point lead. Robinson and Collins each hit 3-pointers that made it 45-33 and Temple stretched the lead from the foul line in the final minutes as the student section chanted, "The Hawk is dead!"
The Owls went 8-for-19 from 3-point range and the Hawks committed 19 turnovers.
The Hawks were done in the last two games by awful starts to the second half, first a 21-3 run by the Wildcats and than a 20-0 spurt by the Colonials that they could never overcome.
Martelli said those two losses knocked some of the confidence out of the Hawks.
"I did think we were a little quiet, a little tense before the game," he said.
This was the first game between the teams at Temple's Liacouras Center since last year's infamous goon game, when Chaney sent in Nehemiah Ingram to commit hard fouls that resulted in a broken arm for Saint Joseph's John Bryant.
Chaney used Ingram to "send a message" to a Hawks team he thought was using illegal screens and referred to his player as a "goon." Chaney earned a five-game suspension.
Saint Joseph's beat Temple last month, 59-57, and both coaches have insisted that last year's incident is behind them.
Robinson and Salisbery hit 3s early in the game for a 17-11 lead and Robinson's 3 right before halftime gave the Owls a 26-21 lead.
The Owls (14-9, 7-5 Atlantic 10) snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Hawks and won for only the third time in the last 13 games against their longtime Big 5 rival.
"It's a long time coming, I'd say," Robinson said. "It took four years to do it, but, hey, better late than never."
Robinson, Collins and Nehemiah Ingram are the three seniors who have never played an NCAA tournament game, the longest drought in coach John Chaney's 24 years at Temple. The losing streak against the Hawks only added to the sting of four seasons that failed to live up to their expectations.
"If somebody's always picking on you like that, you've got to come back and defend yourself sooner or later," Robinson said.
They surely needed the win to keep alive their NCAA tournament hopes. The Owls would need at least 20 wins to even think about returning to the tournament after four straight NITs, and with two of their last five regular-season games on the road and one on Feb. 25 against No. 2 Duke, that could be a long shot.
"You want to finish a season strong," Chaney said. "Our body of work speaks for itself."
The Hall of Fame coach, however, didn't take any added satisfaction in beating the Hawks for the first time since March 3, 2002.
"Nothing gets to me but these guys shooting poorly. Nothing," he said. "That's (the media's) frenzy, not mine. Temple's the winningest basketball team in this city. Remember that, as long as you live. We should not be ashamed of that. The only other team in this city that's close is Penn."
Abdulai Jalloh scored 11 points for the Hawks (10-12, 4-7). The darlings of college basketball only two years ago and an NIT finalist last season, Phil Martelli's team has struggled to score this year and is near the bottom of the A-10. Saint Joseph's has lost four of five.
"There's going to have to be something a little bit different," Martelli said. "All your creative juices have to come into play here."
While the Hawks didn't collapse nearly as bad in the second half as they did in each of their two losses in the last week to No. 4 Villanova and No. 7 George Washington, they couldn't make any sort of run because they kept turning the ball over and couldn't find anyone to consistently score.
Mark Tyndale swiped a pass and scored on a fast break dunk and Dustin Salisbery came out of nowhere for a left-handed dunk that keyed a 9-2 stretch early in the second half that gave the Owls a nine-point lead. Robinson and Collins each hit 3-pointers that made it 45-33 and Temple stretched the lead from the foul line in the final minutes as the student section chanted, "The Hawk is dead!"
The Owls went 8-for-19 from 3-point range and the Hawks committed 19 turnovers.
The Hawks were done in the last two games by awful starts to the second half, first a 21-3 run by the Wildcats and than a 20-0 spurt by the Colonials that they could never overcome.
Martelli said those two losses knocked some of the confidence out of the Hawks.
"I did think we were a little quiet, a little tense before the game," he said.
This was the first game between the teams at Temple's Liacouras Center since last year's infamous goon game, when Chaney sent in Nehemiah Ingram to commit hard fouls that resulted in a broken arm for Saint Joseph's John Bryant.
Chaney used Ingram to "send a message" to a Hawks team he thought was using illegal screens and referred to his player as a "goon." Chaney earned a five-game suspension.
Saint Joseph's beat Temple last month, 59-57, and both coaches have insisted that last year's incident is behind them.
Robinson and Salisbery hit 3s early in the game for a 17-11 lead and Robinson's 3 right before halftime gave the Owls a 26-21 lead.
posted by temple at 10:53 AM
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