ODJ: Down The Stretch

With four games left in the regular season, the Temple women’s basketball team is back in familiar territory – at the top of the Atlantic 10 standings. The Owls will face the biggest remaining hurdle in their quest for a fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth on Wednesday night, when they visit Saint Joseph’s.

If Coach Dawn Staley’s squad can beat the Hawks, another NCAA bid seems very likely.

Of course, that’s a lot easier written than done.

Earlier this season, Temple (15-11) needed a pair of missed free throws from the Hawks and two successful free throws from senior center Lady Comfort in the waning seconds to secure a 70-67 victory at The Liacouras Center.

Even as the Owls have dominated the Big 5 series recently, they’ve rarely routed the Hawks. The same can be said about Temple’s current A-10 campaign.

Once again this past weekend, they had to fight hard to beat a lower echelon A-10 opponent in Duquesne. But, in the end, a win is a win is a win.

Beating Duquesne pushed the Owls into a first place tie with Xavier and George Washington, which suffered a stunning loss at St. Bonaventure on Saturday. Earlier in the week, Xavier lost at Dayton.

Temple, Xavier, and GW are 8-2 in league play. They each have four games to go. And they’ve split their games with each other. Temple beat GW. GW beat Xavier. Xavier beat Temple.

So, assuming all three don’t lose again, a first place tie would be broken by each team’s record against the rest of the teams in the league, starting with the fourth place finisher. Right now, GW has the advantage thanks to its victory over likely fourth or fifth place finisher Dayton (which beat Temple and Xavier).

Notably, GW visits St. Joe’s this weekend. Xavier hosts Dayton next week.

But the ultimate prize for all three contenders is a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. GW is still a lock. Xavier and Temple are both in good shape, as long as they avoid a late blunder.

Losing to St. Joe’s would put the Owls in a situation where they would have to reach the A-10 finals in order to feel somewhat secure about an at-large bid. (Xavier would be in the same position with another regular season loss.)

After visiting Hawk Hill, Temple hosts Fordham (which is 0-25 this season, Wow!), then visits Saint Louis (10-15) before closing with a home game versus UMass (11-14).

Currently rated 50th in the RPI, an unexpected loss would obviously damage Temple’s ranking. There aren’t any more chances for high-quality wins during the regular season, but the Owls took care of that when they beat likely NCAA teams Purdue and GW. Furthermore, they haven’t suffered a “bad loss” all season. The worst teams to beat Temple are Dayton (20-5, RPI: 61) and MAC co-leader Miami (16-9, RPI: 74).