Temple University Athletics
Temple University
Dayton
#24/rv Men's Basketball Wins at Dayton, 75-63
2.12.11 | Men's Basketball
Ramone Moore leads short-handed Owls to big conference road win
Box score
DAYTON, OHIO - Junior guard Ramone Moore led all scorers with 26 points and junior forward Scootie Randall added 17 to lift #24/rv Temple to a 75-63 win at Dayton Saturday afternoon. The Owls, who played without senior forward Lavoy Allen, posted their sixth straight win to improve to 19-5 overall and 9-2 in the Atlantic 10. The Flyers, who lost for just the third time in 17 home games, fall to 17-9 and 5-6.
Playing without Allen, the team's top rebounder and interior defender, the Owls gutted out a win in arguably the league's toughest arena. Temple's defense held Dayton to 25.9 percent shooting in the first half in building a 31--21 lead at the break, and 37.3 percent for the game.
"Nine minutes before the game, he came in and Coach said, 'Can you go?' and he said no," said Moore on Allen not playing. "(Lavoy) said, 'I've got confidence in those guys, that they're going to be able to do a good job without me.' That's what we did."
Allen, who did warm up, had not practiced since spraining his left ankle in the final minutes of Temple's win over Fordham Wednesday.
The Owls held their own on the glass despite being shorthanded, losing the rebound battle by just one carom, 40-39. Moore, who played brilliantly on both ends, pulled down a career-high nine rebounds to lead TU while junior forward Micheal Eric (6 pts) also tied for team honors with nine boards. Randall grabbed seven rebounds while sophomore Rahlir Jefferson, making his first career start, added five.
Junior guard Juan Fernandez (9 points) had his best game distributing the ball. He dished a career-high-tyinhg nine assists while not committing a turnover.
In all, Temple made 18 assists against just nine turnovers while Dayton committed 12 turnovers with just 11 assists.
The Owls took control in the final four minutes of the first half as Randall scored four points in an 8-2 run to give TU a 31-19 lead.
Temple kept the defensive pressure on at the start of the second half, preventing Dayton from making a run to get back into the game. Randall hit a 15-foot jumper, Moore made two free throws and Jefferson made a driving layup that pushed the lead to 59-42 with 6:57 left.
When the game looked over, Temple missed the front end of three straight one-and-ones, allowing Dayton to make a surge that cut it to 62-54 in the closing minutes. The Owls put it away by making their last 11 free throws, eight by Moore.
Khalif Wyatt added 12 points off the bench for the Owls. Chris Wright led three Flyer double-figure scorers with 15 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
"We're hoping (Allen) can play next Thursday," coach Fran Dunphy said, referring to a home game against Richmond. "If it was the last game of the year, he would have played (tonight). He made the best judgment he could. After warmups we asked him how he felt, and he said it was best that he didn't go."
The Owls and Spiders are tied for third place in the A-10 standings wih 9-2 league marks. The Thursday game will be televised nationally by CBS College Sports and tips off at 7:00 p.m.
