A-10 Champs!

The Temple Owls are A-10 champs!

Coach Fran Dunphy’s magnificent squad bolted ahead of St. Joseph’s with a 16-2 run at the start of the second half and carried that momentum all the way to the finish to earn a 69-64 victory over the Hawks in the Atlantic 10 Championship Game on Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

With the win, the Owls captured an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, their first since 2001. Temple will carry a 21-12 record and a seven-game win streak into the Big Dance.

Junior guard Dionte Christmas led the Owls with 22 points on Saturday night, but it was the offensive contribution of the team’s role players and Christmas’s defensive effort in the final minutes that pointed the team towards victory.

Sophomore guard Ryan Brooks scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half, as Temple erased a 32-25 halftime deficit. And after his teammates missed six of eight free throws in the last three minutes, Brooks hit a pair with 14 seconds remaining to clinch the win.

Senior point guard Chris Clark finished with 10 points and three assists, and he keyed the second half blitz with a three-pointer and a steal and fastbreak layup.

Freshman forward Lavoy Allen also made a big contribution with eight points, seven rebounds, and three blocked shots. It was Allen’s driving dunk on the first play of the second half that started the amazing burst.

And finally, of course, there was senior guard Mark Tyndale, who did it all for the Owls. Tyndale totaled eight points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, with no turnovers. He and Christmas combined to limit SJU forward Pat Calathes to 14 points (shooting 5 for 13), with three assists versus five turnovers.

The Hawks controlled the first half with a terrific effort from junior center Ahmad Nivins, who scored at will in the paint. He had 12 points and five rebounds at halftime. But the Owls started helping Allen and Sergio Olmos in defending Nivins in the second half, and the rest of the Hawks failed to fill the scoring void.

One big factor was the absence of senior forward Rob Ferguson, who battled foul trouble throughout the game and finished with five points. Sophomore guard Darren Govens scored nine points in the first 15 minutes, helping St. Joe’s establish a 25-15 lead. But he was a non-factor in the second half, when Clark generally denied him the ball.

For the Owls, Christmas carried the offense while his teammates struggled to hit open shots in the first 20 minutes. Temple would have been down by more than seven points at halftime if Christmas had not drilled a pair of deep three-pointers, drawing a foul on one of them and converting a four-point play.

On the other hand, the game would have been closer at halftime if three Temple three-pointers had not been erased by turnovers. In a frustrating stretch for the Owls, Brooks had a three-pointer erased when Clark was called for charging, then Clark lost a three-pointer because he stepped out-of-bounds just before shooting the ball. Later, Brooks hit a three-pointer just after the shot clock buzzer had sounded.

The Owls got a boost when Clark nailed a three-pointer with five seconds left in the half.

Temple shot 61 percent from the floor in the second half. Meanwhile, St. Joe’s converted 13 of 13 free throws in the contest. In an unlikely turn of events, point guard Tasheed Carr became the Hawks’ best scoring option by driving to the basket. Carr, however, went 0 for 5 from three-point range.

The Owls played incredibly well, almost perfectly, until Tyndale missed four straight free throws and Clark missed two of four as they were trying to protect the late lead. But Temple’s defense never gave the Hawks a chance.

Christmas was picked as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. He was joined on the all-tournament team by Tyndale, Nivins, Calathes, and Charlotte’s Leemire Goldwire.

Clark deserved a spot on the team, but hey, what’s the difference?

The Temple Owls are A-10 champs!

Temple Postgame Press Conference: Listen to Audio

St. Joe's Postgame Press Conference: Listen to Audio

Ryan Brooks Postgame: Listen to Audio

Chris Clark Postgame: Listen to Audio

Dionte Christmas Postgame: Listen to Audio

Harvey Levine's Saint Joe-Temple Gallery