Temple University Athletics
Owls Escape Palestra With 61-59 Win Over Saint Joseph's
2.12.09 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - The last four meetings between long-time city rivals Temple and Saint Joseph's have been decided by five points or less. Holding an 11-point lead with a minute left, it looked like the Owls would put an end to that streak and head back to North Broad with a comfortable victory. Instead, the Hawks took advantage of poor free throw shooting by the Cherry and White to cut the deficit to just one with six seconds left, but came up short in a 61-59 Temple win at a sold-out Palestra on Thursday.
"We're just lucky to get out of here with a victory," head coach Fran Dunphy said. "I don't expect us to shoot that poorly down the stretch the rest of the way."
The TU slide started innocently enough, when two players that were instrumental in the victory--Ryan Brooks and Lavoy Allen--missed good opportunities in the paint that could have extended the lead to 15 with under four minutes to play. The two top defenders on the team, Allen kept Ahmad Nivins (21 points, six rebounds) somewhat in check, while Brooks shut down Darrin Govens (3-for-13, eight points) on the perimeter.
"It was a real good defensive effort for us," Dunphy said. "We switched well and communicated well on those switches."
Three straight misses on the charity stripe may have worried a handful of the Temple faithful on hand or watching on ESPN2, but the 54-43 advantage looked so safe that hundreds of patrons at the historic gym began heading for the exits during a break in the action. Those that did missed an exciting or dreadful final minute, depending on which shade of red (cherry or crimson) they preferred.
When the Govens hit a three-pointer at exactly the one-minute mark to cut the deficit to eight, it still looked like the Owls would knock off the league's first-place team. Brooks was fouled and made both free throws, his first points of the game, to return the lead to double-digits with 54 seconds remaining, but things soon got very interesting.
SJU's Tasheed Carr, who shot just 6-for-20, connected on a three and senior Dionte Christmas began a stretch of six straight trips to the line when an Owl made one or less free throws. This trend, along with some Temple defensive lapses, allowed the Hawks to slowly cut into the deficit.
What looked like a sure-fire victory had turned into a nightmare for the Cherry and White. After Allen fouled out after missing two free throws with 12.9 seconds to play, Garrett Williamson made two at the charity stripe to make it 59-57.
Juan Fernandez, half a world away from his home country and six weeks into his college experience, was fouled and found himself alone on the line with nearly all of the 8,722 fans in the building yelling for the freshman to miss. After missing the first foul shot, he swished the second to extend the lead to 60-57 with 9.2 to play.
Fernandez fouled Williamson near mid-court to prevent a game-tying three and the Hawk junior made both once again to trim the deficit to just one with 6.2 left. Fernandez again was fouled and repeated his previous trip to the line with the volume in the ancient arena turned up a notch, making one-of-two with 4.7 to go.
"Juan is a very confident kid and he's been in a lot of big time situations in his international career," Dunphy said. "I think next time he'll go 4-for-4. I believe in Juan and I think our guys do too."
Carr was able to get a 30-foot three-point attempt off before the buzzer sounded. The shot seemed to hang in the air for minutes, rather than seconds, for Temple fans. When it missed the mark, the Owls could breathe a sigh of relief, having escaped the Palestra in Houdini-like fashion with a 61-59 win.
The league's second best free-throw shooting team (72.5%) shot just 7-for-18 (38.6%) in the final 2:28.
Temple has now won three straight in the series, most notably last year's Atlantic 10 Championship game in March. The streak would have reached four, had it not been for a Pat Calathes last second three-pointer at the Liacouras Center on January 26, 2008.
The finish was another for Big 5 and Palestra lore, but the majority of the game was controlled by the Owls. Temple used a 14-0 run to end the first half with a 29-21 advantage, and scored the first four points after halftime to make the lead 12. That would be as large as it would get for TU, who did not lead by less than eight points until 33.5 seconds to go.
Christmas recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Classmate Semaj Inge added 11, all in the first half, and his team improved to 6-0 when he reaches double digits. Fellow tri-captain Sergio Olmos added 10 points. All three were playing their final game on Penn, and this season, SJU's home court.
"You live for this," Christmas said of the atmosphere at the Palestra. "It's one of the reasons I came to a Big 5 school. To come out with a win is even better."
Saint Joseph's (14-9, 7-2) stay in first place in the Atlantic 10 lasted less than 24 hours, as the jumbled conference standings feature three teams (SJU, Dayton and Xavier) with two losses. The Owls (14-9, 6-3) hold a half-game advantage over Duquesne for fourth place. The top four teams receive the all-important first round bye in next month's Atlantic 10 Tournament in Atlantic City.
Duquesne (15-8, 6-4) is next up for the Cherry and White. The two teams will meet on Sunday at 3 PM in a game broadcast nationally by CBS College Sports.
