Temple University Athletics
Fernandez Leads Temple To 78-73 Win At Duquesne
2.15.09 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2009
PITTSBURGH, PA - Winning on the road in the Atlantic 10 Conference is what always separates the good teams. So Temple's 78-73 win at Duquesne Sunday afternoon, the Owls' second A-10 road win in four days, will go a long way in helping TU secure a bye in next month's A-10 Championship. The Owls have now won three straight to improve to 15-9 overall and into a third place tie in the conference standings with a 7-3 record. Duquesne, who entered play with a 9-3 home mark including a win over then #9/9 Xavier, fall to 15-9 and 6-5.
"This is a very, very big win for us for a lot of reasons," Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said. "We are happy to have it. It puts us in better shape in terms of the league standings. More than anything else though it shows some toughness that we had to have on the road to prevail and that is what you always want from your guys."
The toughest Owl of them all proved to be their newest addition, freshman Juan Fernandez.. The 6-4 guard scored a career-high 19 points to lead the Cherry and White. He was strongest in the final minute, blowing by his man for a finger-roll lay-up with 41 seconds to play, making the score 73-67, and then drained two free throws with 16 ticks on the clock to seal the win.
"It was a pretty special performance tonight (from Juan)," Dunphy stated. "He made some huge play. He was really very special tonight, but In all honesty, though, it was a great team victory for us."
All-America candidate Dionte Christmas, who picked up two quick fouls, struggled with his play, but still totaled 15 points. Semaj Inge posted his second straight double-figure effort with 11 points while Ryan Brooks rebounded from his worst offensive performance of his career to add 11 points.
Dunphy also was pleased with the play off the bench, in particular, Micheal Eric and Luis Guzman, who had seen limited minutes over the past few games.
"Even though he pnly played five minutes, Mike had a block and was effective. Louie gave us some solid play and had some mbig rebounds. I do not think we could have weathered the storm without the guys on the bench coming in and doing what they needed to do," Dunphy said.
Dunphy utilized a lineup of Eric, Guzman, Fernandez, Inge and Craig Williams for a three-minute stretch early in the second half in a tight contest. That five kept the game deadlocked while the Owls went to a zone to slow the frenetic pace that the Dukes like to impose on their opponents.
"I thought that (zone) saved us," Dunphy said. "Our guys and all of the assistant coaches want us to play more zone and I probably should, but we do not work hard enough or long enough at it to be effective with it. But sometimes it just changes tempo and that helped us today."
Lavoy Allen, who picked up three first half fouls, scored five points in a 12-3 run to give Temple its largest lead, 69-61, with just under four minutes to play.
Senior guard Aaron Jackson, who led all scorers with 21 points, scored four quick points to make it 69-65. Allen, who sat out the first 10 minutes of the second half, took a nice feed from Christmas to extend the margin to six, 71-65, with 1:13 to play. Following two free throws by Bill Clark, Fernandez took the shot clock down to single digits before making his lay-up and then he and Inge closed the game by hitting four straight free throws over the final 16 seconds.
All nine players that saw action scored for the Owls while Williams pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. Temple also handled Duquesne's pressure defense, committing just 12 turnovers, four of which were offensive fouls.
Temple next opens a three-game homestand Wednesday against Fordham (7:00 p.m/OwlAccess/1210 AM WPHT).
