As Phil Martelli put it after the game, the 78-60 final doesn't even begin to do justice to the Temple Owls' "domination" of the St. Joseph's Hawks on Saturday afternoon. Indeed, Temple was up by as much as 28 with just under four minutes remaining in the game; they had secured the victory long before that.
Only three Temple players -- Ramone Moore, Juan Fernandez, and Michael Eric -- would score in the first half, with Fernandez and Moore responsible for 32 of the Owls' 38 points in the opening twenty. Temple took a 14 point lead into the locker room and never looked back.
Assorted notes, quotes, post-game audio and a full rollout recap after the jump:
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Temple Notes
-- Moore and Fernandez finished the game with 21 points and 17 points, respectively, after finishing the first with 17 and 15. The two combined to shoot 15 for 24 from the field.
-- As a team, Temple -- who came into the game with the second best three point percentage in the conference at 39.4% -- shot exactly 60% from the floor (30-50) and 53.5% from three.
-- Though junior guard Khalif Wyatt did not go off for at least 20 points for what would have been the sixth time in the last eight games, he did do an impressive job setting up his teammates early. As Fernandez and Moore opened hot, it was Wyatt who was most often getting them the ball. Khalif finished the first half with six assists and set a new career-high with eight total.
-- Four Owls scorers -- Moore, Fernandez, Wyatt and Eric -- finished in double figures.
-- Speaking of Eric, he was on the floor for 17 minutes (just as he was at Charlotte), but showed signs that he could have gone longer had the game been closer. A post-up, spin move, dunk sequence in the second half made it look as if the Nigerian Nightmare has put his patella injury behind him.
-- The win moves Temple to 15-5 overall and 4-2 in the A-10.
St. Joe's Notes
-- Junior guard and SJU leading scorer Carl Jones finished the game with just five points on 1 for 5 shooting. Martelli commented after the game that he did not believe Jones' recent ankle injury was still a factor in the guard's recent slump. "Tay" is just 12 of 46 from the floor in his last five games.
-- Sophomore Langston Galloway was also held in check by the Temple perimeter defense, finishing with just seven points on 3 for 9 shooting. It was Galloway who was the primary cover on Moore in the first half.
-- With his 17 points, SJU power forward Ronald Roberts was the only Hawk to finish in double figures. Temple has had consistent problems this year guarding opposing bigs with Roberts' skill set. Today was no different, as the 6-8 sophomore grabbed 10 rebounds to record his third double-double of the season.
-- As for total rebounds, Joe's topped the Owls 34-27, pulling down 15 offensive boards. Temple coach Fran Dunphy immediately pointed to that statistic and SJU's 18 second chance points as the elements of the box score with which he was the most displeased.
-- The loss drops St. Joseph's to 13-9 and 3-4 in the A10.
Odds and Ends
-- As for specifics odds and ends, Temple obviously covered it's 6.5-point spread. The two teams' combined score of 138 fell under the 141.5 O/U.
-- The win is Temple's 10th straight over SJU, dating back to Feb. 2008. It is the fifth double-digit win streak in the 153 games played between the schools. No team has won more than eleven straight, a record Temple will have the opportunity to tie when they travel to the St. Joseph's Fieldhouse later this season.
-- The announced attendance of 10,203 was the second largest crowd in Liacouras Center history. It was the 13th basketball sellout in the building's history and the second this season. The Temple media notes state that the team has sold out four home games -- St. Joe's, Villanova, Duke, Maryland -- at three different venues -- Apollo, Wells Fargo, Palestra -- this season (though last weekend's Maryland game was alleged to have been a "neutral site contest"). The only larger crowd to watch a basketball game at the Liacouras Center came in 2004 when the Owls hosted Jameer Nelson, Delonte West and the undefeated St. Joseph's Hawks.
Rollout RecapTemple's Cherry Crusade
(1) "The last time you beat us, our freshmen were freshmen...in high school."
(2) "La Salle is more relevant than you."
(3) "Only Tebow can save the Hawk."
(4) "Only ITT Tech accepts more than SJU."
(5) "So who's NOT transferring this year?"
(6) "Free O'Brien."
(7) "Who wears short-shorts?" (See here:[embed]http://yhoo.it/zJLUU7)
(8) "Things Delonte West got into: SJU, LeBron's Mom, White House."
(9) "This is our ciTy."
St. Joseph's Student Section
(1) "More gangsta: TU Holloway or TU students?"
(2) "Not Ready for Hagan."
(3) "The Hawk Will Never Die."
Quotes
-- Phil Martelli on the outcome: "What the final score, actually what that final score doesn't even indiciate, is how we were domianted. But they dominated"..."That was not really much of a contest. And it wasn't individual. I just said that to the players. We got waxed, not an individual guy lost his matchup. And when you play Dunph's teams that's what you're really playing. You're playing a team concept and not an individual."
-- Juan Fernandez on Temple winning 10 in a row over the Hawks: "That's one of the tough things about playing St. Joe's, especially now. You always want to keep (the streak alive). But we know that they know what the streak has been lately and we expect them to take pride and try to reverse that. Later on, we're going to have to go to their place and it's going to be tough. We keep that in mind and we try to stay focused. It's always good to beat them, obviously. It's good to beat any city team. We just have to stay focused and play our game if we want to keep that streak going."
-- Fran Dunphy on Phil Martelli's Relationship with the Coaches versus Cancer cause: "We've been doing [Coaches versus Cancer] since 1996, and it means a lot. There is nobody, including people in this room, who are not effected by this disease"..."I will tell you flat out that nobody is better than Martelli in this cause. No one. No one here in Philadelphia, certainly. No one throughout the country. The man never says 'no,' is everywhere he can be, and I'm very proud that he has done what he has done for this cause."
-- Dunphy on the atmosphere: "It was great. Any time we can get that student representation, especially, that would be terrific for us. So now the next issue is, we play here on Wednesday. We'd like to get an equal representation on Wednesday. That will be important for us. I want to get the message out to the students that that's how important they are to what it is we do. It's of critical importance. Temple is a very supportive place in so many different ways. We need the support of that student body and I really appreciate what they did today."
-- Dunphy on having to play at the Hagan Arena later this season: "We've got to go back there in a couple weeks. They (St. Joe's) will be more than ready."
Downloadable Post-Game Audio
Phil Martelli