If you were surprised by Temple’s 78-76 loss to Fordham on Saturday afternoon at The Liacouras Center, you haven’t been paying attention to the Atlantic 10 this season.
Lately, the Rams have been playing much better than they were when the Owls gained a 58-50 victory at Rose Hill Gymnasium in late January. Temple, meanwhile, has slipped a few notches defensively.
Perhaps the only surprise is that Saturday’s game didn’t go into overtime, like the Owls’ previous two home games versus UMass and Rhode Island.
Overtime seemed likely after Temple regained possession, down by two, with seven seconds to go. But Mark Tyndale couldn’t shake free on the last play and missed a long three-point attempt at the buzzer.
Trailing for most of the game, the Owls would have taken sole possession of second place in the A-10 had they been able to steal the victory. Instead, they dropped to 14-12, 7-5 in league play, with a must-win game coming up versus Charlotte on Wednesday.
That’s life in the A-10, where there’s no real difference between the second-best team and the 12th-best team.
Fordham (11-13, 5-7) was alone in 12th place before Saturday’s game. But the Rams’ last four results were a two-point loss to Rhode Island, a four-point win at UMass, a two-point win over Charlotte, and an overtime loss at Saint Louis.
Last month, Fordham shot 31 percent from the field and converted just 4 of 23 three-point attempts in losing at home to Temple. The Rams, particularly top shooter Marcus Stout, missed a bunch of makeable shots in that contest.
On Saturday, Stout couldn’t miss. He drilled four three-pointers in the first six minutes as the Rams jumped to a 20-12 lead. The Owls were just as hot, hitting their first five field goal attempts.
But you know it’s a bad sign when you’re shooting 100 percent from the field and you’re still behind.
With Stout and teammates Brenton Butler and Herb Tanner nailing shots from the perimeter and senior center Bryant Dunston scoring well in the paint, the Rams pushed their lead to double-digits.
The Owls, meanwhile, got anxious and started to force things offensively. Tyndale had four turnovers at the half. Temple had nine. The Owls committed just four turnovers when they beat Fordham last month.
Three minutes before halftime, Coach Fran Dunphy switched to a 1-3-1 zone defense, with backup guard Semaj Inge running and jumping at the top of the zone. The Rams missed their next two three-point attempts and committed three turnovers.
Inge scored twice, including a spectacular putback, before Tanner hit a three-pointer to give his team a 43-34 lead at the half.
The second half started the same way as the first half, with Stout hitting his first two shots. Then Butler hit a pair of tough jumpers. The Owls matched them, score for score, but that certainly didn’t help cut into the lead, which grew to 60-45 after a three-point play by senior forward Sebastian Greene with 12:05 remaining.
Then, suddenly, the Rams got sloppy – especially on defense.
Ryan Brooks made a cutting layup. Dionte Christmas nailed a wide-open three-pointer. Lavoy Allen slipped inside for a layup. Christmas then drove for another layup to cut the deficit to single-digits.
The pressure increased, and Greene committed two turnovers in the backcourt in a 15-second span. The Owls made everything hard for the Rams, who scored eight points in eight minutes. And they only managed that much because Stout hit an amazing scoop layup and drained an impossible jumper at the shot clock buzzer.
Temple kept coming. Tyndale grabbed a defensive rebound and dribbled all the way down the floor before passing to Chris Clark in the corner. Clark drilled a three-pointer to make it 68-66 with 5:39 to go. A minute later, Brooks hit a short jumper to tie the score.
Why would this game be any different than the rest of this year’s A-10 thrillers?
Over the next three minutes, Clark missed a wide-open three-point look, Dunston missed two free throws, and Allen missed a baseline jumper. Dunphy said afterward that he thought Allen could have taken the ball to the basket for a dunk instead of settling for the jump shot, which he shot tentatively.
Reeling for almost 10 minutes, the Rams regained control of the game by hitting four straight free throws. Previously, they had missed four in row.
Scrambling around defensively, the Owls surrendered three offensive rebounds in the last two minutes. Stout had a tip-in, then he hit two free throws to give Fordham a 76-70 lead with 38 seconds to go.
But it still wasn’t over.
The last 30 seconds went like this: Temple scored, Stout made one of two free throws, Temple scored, Stout made one of two free throws, Temple scored again.
Tyndale’s dunk with eight seconds remaining cut the deficit to 78-76. Dunphy called timeout to set up a fullcourt press.
With no more timeouts, the Rams were forced to throw a risky inbounds pass that was tipped away by Tyndale. In panic mode, Fordham managed to knock the ball out-of-bounds with 4.5 seconds remaining.
Dunphy said he was going to let the final sequence develop, instead of calling his last timeout, since the Rams weren’t set up defensively after the turnover. But he opted for the timeout after the ball went out-of-bounds.
The final play developed too slowly.
Dunphy had Tyndale throw the inbounds pass, a duty that usually belongs to Clark. Dunphy said later that he hoped that the Rams would forget about Tyndale, allowing him to get the ball back and drive to the basket.
But they stayed with Tyndale after he passed the ball to Brooks, and the clock was inside three seconds by the time Tyndale got the ball back, about 40 feet from the basket. In a crowd, Tyndale was able to dribble ahead before shooting a 25-footer. His shot was perfectly straight, but short, and bounced off the front of the rim at the buzzer.
There was contact on Tyndale’s final shot, enough to affect his release, he said, but not enough to draw a whistle from the officials.
Stout finished with 31 points and five assists. Dunston had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Christmas led the Owls with 20 points, while Tyndale totaled 18 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists. He also had five turnovers.
Both teams shot exactly 50 percent from the field. Both teams missed key free throws. There was really no difference between the two.
That’s life in the A-10 in 2008.
Dunphy Postgame Comments: Listen to Audio
Tyndale/Christmas Postgame Comments: Listen to Audio
Harvey Levine's Fordham-Temple Gallery
Harvey Levine's Fordham-Temple Women's Gallery
|