Temple University Athletics
TEMPLE ADVANCES TO SEMIFINALS WITH A 61-51 WIN OVER DAYTON
3.10.05 | Men's Basketball
CINCNNATI, OHIO -- Mardy Collins shook off one of the worst halves of his stellar Temple career to lead the Owls to a hard-fought 61-51 win over Dayton in the Atlantic 10 Tournament Quarterfinal Round Thursday evening in front of a partisan 7,221 fans at the US Bank Arena. Temple, 20-2 in A-10 quarterfinal games, now plays George Washington, which advanced to the semifinals by virtue of a 79-63 win over Fordham, on Friday night (8:30 p.m./CN8/WPHT 1210 AM).
Collins, who was slighted by the league coaches in the A-10 Player of the Year voting, hit just 1-of-11 shots from the field in the first half. The Owls, surprisingly led the contest at the break, 28-16, due to a tenacious defense that held the Flyers scoreless for nearly 12 minutes in the first stanza.
The 6-6 point guard led the way in the second stanza, scoring 16 of his game-high 18 points. He also tied Wayne Marshall (9 points) and Dustin Salisbery (7 points) for game honors in rebounding with eight. Temple out-rebounded Dayton, 42-28, for the game.
The Owls, 16-12, went on a 15-0 run during the Flyers' first half drought to build a 21-5 lead with 6:02 to play. Norman Plummer, who scored 10 of Dayton's 16 first half points, drained a jumper to end the drought with 5:02 remaining. The Owls then went on a 7-1 run to take its largest lead of the game, 28-8, with 2:47 on the clock. After Collins when to the bench with his second foul, Dayton scored the next eight points to close to 28-16 at the break.
Collins started the second half on fire, scoring the Cherry and White's first eight points, including two three-pointers, to push the advantage to 33-17. Dayton chipped away over the next four minutes, closing to within six, 40-34, with 11:29 to play. Two free throws by Collins and a jumper by Mark Tyndale (15 points, 7 rebounds), brought it back to a double figure margin (44-34).
A Chris Alvarez lay-up capped a 6-0 Dayton run over the next five minutes to bring the Flyers to within four points for the first time since early in the contest. Salisbery then drained an NBA three-pointer, his first field goal of the game, to end the run. Free throws by Tyndale and Collins extended the Temple lead to 11 points, 51-40, with 4:03 to play.
The Flyers cut in to seven points, 51-44, with just under three minutes to play before Antywane Robinson (10 points, 6 rebounds), converted a three-point play on a follow shot to make it 54-44 with 1:28 remaining. Temple made seven-of-10 free throws to close out the game.
Acting head coach Dan Leibovitz, who has guided Temple to three wins in his four games at the helm, will now try and post head coach John Chaney's 500th win at Temple when he leads the Owls into action against the Colonials Friday night.
