Owls Beat Charlotte

Mark Tyndale and Dionte Christmas served basketball’s version of the two-minute warning on Wednesday night, and the Temple Owls not only survived, but thrived, in posting a 75-61 victory over Charlotte at The Liacouras Center.

With both of his star players in foul trouble, Coach Fran Dunphy sat them down for two short stretches in the closing minutes of the first half. It was the first time all season that the Owls played meaningful minutes with Tyndale and Christmas on the bench at the same time.

Maybe he should rest them more often.

Ryan Brooks took a pass from Sergio Olmos and nailed a three-pointer just before the shot clock buzzer to give the Owls their first double-digit lead, 31-21, with four minutes left in the half. Defensively, Temple surrendered three points on four Charlotte possessions with Tyndale and Christmas on the bench.

The team’s performance impressed Dunphy enough that he opted to pull those two out of the game once again in the second half, when the foul situation was not a factor.

Following a 9-1 run that pushed the lead to 51-36, Tyndale threw a bad pass and Christmas committed a bad foul. Dunphy sent both of them to the bench for the next three minutes, though the Owls certainly had some leeway at the time.

Olmos hit a pair of free throws and Luis Guzman drove the baseline for a layup as the home team maintained a double-digit lead.

Christmas finished with 19 points, but it was Brooks who made the biggest difference, hitting 3 of 3 three-pointers and 5 of 6 free throws on the way to 16 points. Tyndale added nine points, eight rebounds, and six assists, but also committed six turnovers in a physical, uptempo contest.

Like many games involving the 49ers, this one was sloppy. But the favorable style of play was little help to Coach Bobby Lutz’s squad, which couldn’t hit an open jumper and had all kinds of trouble dealing with Olmos and Lavoy Allen in the paint.

Streaky guard Leemire Goldwire continued his recent all-or-nothing trend, missing all seven of his three-point attempts and scoring a season-low three points. Goldwire has converted just 2 of 23 threes in his last four games. Before that, he nailed eight threes in a 39-point effort against St. Bonaventure and seven threes in a 31-point game against Xavier.

Earlier this season, Goldwire scored 21 points in Charlotte’s 60-58 victory over Temple.

On a bad night for Goldwire, the 49ers still figured to have a chance if they could get some perimeter points from their second-best three-point shooter, sophomore guard Ian Andersen, who missed the first Charlotte-Temple contest.

But Andersen was just as bad as Goldwire, hitting just 1 of 6 three-point shots.

As a result, the 49ers were forced to look inside, where forwards Lamont Mack and Charlie Coley were stymied by Tyndale, Allen, and Olmos. Allen finished with four blocked shots. Olmos had three. Tyndale was particularly impressive defending Mack, a strong and athletic 6-7 forward, on the low block.

With three minutes left in the game, Mack was 4 for 18 from the field with 10 points. He drained three late three-pointers to boost his final numbers.

Despite the physical nature of the contest, Allen and Olmos fared well on offense, too. With a height advantage against everyone except Charlotte backup Phil Jones (a 6-11 center who played just six minutes), Allen matched his career-high with 12 field goal attempts. He finished with 12 points and eight rebounds.

Olmos totaled seven points in 22 minutes. As has often been the case recently, he was a big offensive factor in the early part of the game.

After permitting two of their last three opponents to shoot 50 percent from the field, the Owls limited Charlotte to a 31.4 percent shooting clip. Only Towson shot a lower percentage against them this season.

Temple, meanwhile, converted 51.1 percent of its field goal attempts, including 8 of 15 three-pointers.

The shooting disparity more than offset Charlotte’s 16-3 advantage in offensive rebounds and the fact that the Owls committed 16 turnovers and the 49ers committed 10. Temple had a few hiccups against fullcourt pressure, including a 10-second violation late in the game, but not enough to cause serious alarm.

By the way, the Owls really needed this one. With the victory, Temple kept pace with Richmond and La Salle, all of whom are tied for third place in the Atlantic 10 with an 8-5 record in league play. The Owls improved to 15-12 overall. Charlotte dropped to 15-12, 6-7 in the A-10.

Temple will play Saint Joseph’s at The Palestra on Sunday.

Dunphy Postgame Comments: Listen to Audio

Brooks/Allen Postgame Comments: Listen to Audio

Christmas Postgame Comments: Listen to Audio

Harvey Levine's Charlotte-Temple Photo Gallery