BOX SCORE
For a game between two of the premier teams in the Atlantic 10, it was surprisingly one-sided.
Temple jumped out an early lead and dictated the play for much of its 85-72 win over Xavier at the Liacouras Center on Saturday night.
After scoring the very first basket of the game, Templewith the exception of two ties at 2-2 and 5-5led for the remainder of the evening and never trailed. The Owls went on a 16-0 run, while Xavier went 7:28 without a basket. From there, Temple extended its lead to as many as 21 points before heading to the locker room ahead 47-27 at the break.
"I think we won the game in the first half," Temple senior guard Ramone Moore said. "We got out to a nice lead and we just maintained it throughout the game. Xavier tried to make little runs in spurts throughout the game, but we just maintained."
Moore, who entered the game as the leading scorer in the Atlantic 10 with 20.0 points per game in conference play, finished with a game-high 30, points going 9 for 16 from the field and 5 for 8 from three. It was that kind of hot shooting that put Moore and his teammates out to an early lead they never relinquished.
Xavier cut the margin to as few as nine points in the second with 1:06 remaining, but got no closer. Try as they did, they simply dug too big a hole with their play in the opening half. As a team, the Musketeers committed six turnovers before they recorded their first assist.
News
Xavier coach Chris Mackwhose team appeared on the rebound after a slump following their matchup with Cincinnati earlier this seasonwas brutally honest in assessing the performance.
"We didn't pass the ball," Mack said. "One guy just wants to pat it, pat it, pat it and sort of survey the court like he's the quarterback in football.
"Our inability to pass the ball was a direct reason why we didn't have any assists."
Temple ceded 38 points to the Musketeers' backcourt tandem of senior Tu Holloway and junior Mark Lyons, but those points didn't come easy. Lyons was held to 4-for-15 shooting, while Holloway was just 3 for 9 in the first half and committed four turnovers.
"Xavier has always been led by its oldest players," Mack said. "We've always been led by our seniors, and tonight was an example of our older players not getting the entire team ready to play.
"When you have to motivate seniors who are coming down the home stretch of their career and want to go out in a special way, you would hopefor us to get down 20 points and to go down early is unbelievably frustrating. From here on out, we're going to really see what our seniors are made of."
As for Temple coach Fran Dunphy, it was his veterans who played the best. Aside from Moore, junior guard Khalif Wyatt finished with 18 points and four assists, while fifth-year senior center Micheal Eric posted a double-double with 11 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
"When it comes to rebounding I've always been led to believe that size doesn't necessarily matter, but it's the size of the heart," said Mack.
"I look at Kenny Frease. He's 7-feet, 270-pounds and he's probably the biggest guy on the floor. He goes for two points and one rebound in just under 20 minutes of play. And Micheal Eric, who has probably spent more time in the training room this year than on the practice court, goes for 11 and 16. You can't win when the discrepancy between centers is like that."
Eric, who missed two months of action with a right patella injury, has helped lead Temple to a 7-0 record since his return.
"I feel great," Eric said when asked about his health. "I'm getting better as the weeks go by and I'm just happy to be in a situation like this and to be able to play basketball again."
"It's great having Mike back," Moore said. "Since he came back we've been on this winning streak, and that shows how valuable he is to our team. Like I said, it's just great having him back and we just want to continue our winning streak."
That streak now has Temple at first place in the Atlantic 10 at 8-2 in conference and 19-5 overall.
"We want to take it one game at a time," Moore said when asked about his team's position in the A-10. "Whenever a team comes in here, we want to hold our own. We've gotta finish out these last six games. Hopefully, we can finish with the top spot (in the conference), and then we can go down to Atlantic City (for the Atlantic 10 tournament) and win that."
E-mail Nick Menta at NMenta@comcastsportsnet.com