Temple University Athletics
Providence Overcomes 14-Point Deficit To Defeat Temple, 66-64, In Men's Basketball
11.15.07 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2007
SAN JUAN, PR - Jeff Xavier drained a three-pointer to ignite a 14-0 run as Providence overcame an 11-point second half deficit to defeat Temple, 66-64, in the opening round of the ESPNU O'Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off Classic Thursday afternoon. The Owls (0-2) play Charleston on Friday evening at 8:00 p.m (EST). The game will be televised live on ESPNU and can be heard on The Big Talker, 1210 AM.
"Providence deserves a lot of credit down the stretch," said Temple coach Fran Dunphy. "They made three "threes" in four possessions. One we did not switch properly and the other two we did not pay attention to detail about how good a three-point shooting team this is. That was dissapointing and then we did not answer down the other end."
Trailing 62-52 with 6:02 remaining, Xavier knocked in a three-pointer to cut the PC deficit to seven with 62-55. Dwain Williams, who led the Friars with 17 points, buried a deep three-pointer from the top of the key to make it a two-possession game (62-58) with 4:33 left. Williams then made two free throws to cut it to 62-60 before Brain McKenzie tied the contest with a basket at the 2:32 mark.
Senior co-captain Chris Clark, who scored a career-high 11 points, missed a runner on the baseline and then fouled Xavier (12 points) on the other end. The Providence guard calmly made both free throws to give the Friars their first lead of the second half.
Senior Mark Tyndale was fouled on the Owls' ensuing possession, but missed the front-end of a one-and-one. Providence center Geoff McDermott made the Cherry and White pay, converting a hook shot with 1:11 to play giving the Friars their largest lead, 66-62, of the contest.
Junior Dionte Christmas, who led all scorers with 19 points, missed a three-pointer, but freshman Lavoy Allen tracked down the offensive rebound and fed Christmas for a lay-up to cut the lead to 66-64 with 47 seconds left.
McKenzie missed a three-pointer from the baseline, but the Friars were able to grab the offensive rebound. Fortunately for the Owls, Providence turned the ball over on a shot clock violation with nine seconds on the clock.
Temple coach Fran Dunphy decided to forgo a timeout, and put the ball in Tyndale's hands. The Owl guard drove the lane and took an off-balanced shot. The ball rimmed out. Junior guard Semaj Inge, who scored 15 points on seven-of-nine shooting, pulled down the offensive rebound, but was unable to get off a shot before the final buzzer.
"I did not want to call a timeout to let them set their defense," Dunphy explained, "We had practiced this enough - give Mark the ball, let him come off a high screen and just get in the lane and try and make a play. I would like him (Tyndale) to have a little more patience on that play, but he is a tough guard for anybody in there, I would like to see the film, but I did not think the shot was a really good shot."
"We played hard the first 35 minutes, but the last five minutes, when it counted, we just did not pull it out," said Christmas.
Inge and Clark shined in the defeat. Besides his shooting, Inge also dished a game-high five assists and made a career-high two blocks while playing a career-high 35 minutes. Clark also played a career-high 35 minutes and dished three assists and made two steals. The 5-8 guard also grabbed a career-high four rebounds and connected on three of his four three-point attempts.
"They did a good job," said Dunphy on Clark and Inge. "If Chris can make jumpers on the perimeter that helps us a great deal...I thought Chris gave us as good a game as he could and I thought Semaj played as well as he can. He is not a great finisher at the basket normally, but he did that tonight. we would not have had the lead that we had without Semaj as doing a good a job as he did."
The two started together for the first time as Allen, the Owls freshman standout, came off the bench due to a minor infraction of team rules.
"Lavoy had a little blip on the screen," said Dunphy. "He is as low maintenance as anyone I have ever coached, but there was a small little problem and so I told him 'we are not going to allow this to grow into a bigger problem, so you are just going to sit for a little bit and we will move on'. He is a great guy and he is going to be a great player."
The Owls made 26 of 50 shots for 52 percent shooting from the field and out-rebounded the Friars, 31-27.
