Temple University Athletics
MEN'S BASKETBALL GETS READY FOR THE U.R.I. RAMS
1.21.03 | Men's Basketball
Temple and Rhode Island are meeting for the 54th time in a series that dates back to 1941, with Temple holding a 42-11 advantage in victories, including five straight and eight of the last nine.
Temple is coming off an 82-51 victory over Fordham at the Liacouras Center last Saturday afternoon. Senior Alex Wesby led the Owls in the scoring column with 18 points, shooting eight-for-15 from the field. Junior David Hawkins chipped in with 16 points while Brian Polk added 14 points off the bench in 20 minutes of action. The Owls also got a career-high six blocked shots and six rebounds from freshman Keith Butler. Fordham, which took 25 less shots than the Owls, got a game-high 11 points from Jermaine Anderson, who was the lone Ram in double-figures.
The loss ended a three-game Atlantic 10 losing streak, marking just the second time, since joining the Conference in 1982, that Temple had lost three consecutive league games. Temple has never lost four straight A-10 Conference games.
Rhode Island is coming off a thrilling last-second 58-57 victory at home on Sunday afternoon over Eastern Division leader Saint Joseph's. Following Jameer Nelson's miss of a front end one-and-one with 10.9 seconds to play, the Rams Brian Woodward missed a potential game-winning shot with two-seconds to play, but stripped the ball from the Hawks' Dwayne Jones who had grabbed the rebound, and laid the ball in from point-blank range just before the buzzer. The game-winner capped a 7-0 game-ending run by Rhode Island. Dustin Hellenga, who leads the Rams with a 15.3 ppg. scoring average, tallied 11 points and seven rebounds in the victory.
