Run This Town

The old Juan Fernandez is back, according to coach Fran Dunphy.

After scoring in double digits just twice after suffering concussion-like symptoms at Fordham on Jan. 23, Fernandez showed the type of offensive explosiveness he brings to the Temple roster by scoring 23 points on 7-11 shooting from behind the three-point line as the No. 20 Owls defeated La Salle 65-53 Sunday afternoon at the Tom Gola Arena.

“He’s gotten better over the last two weeks,“ Dunphy said. “The first couple of weeks he was hurting. We kept asking him how felt. He was a shell of himself the past four games. The process ended and now the old Juan Fernandez is back and certainly he was terrific today.”

Fernandez missed just one game due to the injury but definitely showed some signs of the bump he received on his head last month. Fernandez shot just 16-49 from the field up to today’s contest.

“They told me it was a day-by-day thing every day,” he said. “It was a process definitely and everybody helped me. The doctors were great with me and [head trainer] Steve Spiro was there for me every time I needed him. Everybody helped me a lot especially in giving me confidence.

“I was confident and everybody gave me their confidence in trying to get me back as soon as possible. This was the first time I had an injury like that and I just tried to forget about it and move on.”

Fernandez matched his career-high with seven three-pointers, a feat he accomplished in December when the Owls upset then No. 3 Villanova 75-65. The sophomore guard scored a career-high 33 points on 11-15 shooting.

“My teammates looked for me and I knew we were going to need to make shots,” Fernandez said. “I think the key was there when we started the second half. We got the lead and we knew we didn’t have to let them back in the game.”

With the wins over La Salle and Villanova, plus victories over Saint Joseph’s and Pennsylvania, the Owls recorded their fifth 4-0 Big 5 season and their 26th Big 5 crown in school history.

“I means a lot,” junior forward Lavoy Allen said. “Not only to us but to our school, our alumni and the Big 5 is a great tradition and it was really big for us to win it.”

“It’s a big deal for me,” Dunphy said. “I think it’s a big deal for Temple, for Temple basketball. From a personal standpoint, to be declared a champion of the Big 5 is very important. It may not hit them right away, but in five years, 10 years, 20 years, that’s bragging rights I think they will appreciate greatly.”

Temple (24-5, 12-2 Atlantic Ten Conference) and La Salle matched up nearly a month ago with the Owls winning 64-52 at the Liacouras Center behind 14 points from sophomore guard Ramone Moore. Sophomore forward Micheal Eric scored what was then a career-high 13 points on 6-9 shooting. The loss started a current eight game losing streak for the Explorers (11-17, 3-11 A-10).

Senior guard Luis Guzman opened the scoring with a three-pointer from the corner and Eric went on to score six straight points as the Owls went up 13-4.

La Salle responded with seven straight points and a 13-5 run of their own to tie the game at 19. Senior guard Rodney Green had six points during the run and finished the first half with 12 points and four assists.

Allen had a strong first 20 minutes of his own. Late in the first half, Allen scored seven straight points for Owls capped off by a three-pointer from the top of the key which put Temple up by three. Allen finished the first half with nine points and 12 rebounds (seven offensive).

Junior forward Jerrell Williams capped a strong first half for the Explorers with an alley-oop lay-in off a pass from Green as time expired. La Salle shot 50 percent from the field in the first half and entered halftime with a 33-32 lead.

The Owls shot only 35 percent from the field in the first half and were outscored 22-8 in the paint.

“I think it’s happened a number of times to us this season,” Dunphy said. “I was hoping it was going to happen to us today and it certainly did but we’ve been very lucky throughout the year with those kinds of performances of guys stepping up and delivering when we needed them to.”

The second half was a different story as the Owls came out firing. Temple scored the first 18 points highlighted by four triples from Juan Fernandez which put them up 50-33.

Allen added four points during the run and finished the game with 17 points and a career-high 21 rebounds, with nine coming on the offensive board. Allen’s rebounds are the most by a Temple player since Joe Newman pulled down 24 against Drexel on Feb. 5, 1973.

“The main thing is being aggressive,” Allen said. “[La Salle] is a great rebounding team so that’s one of the important things is keeping them off the backboard and that’s what I tried to do.”

“Lavoy is as good a rebounder as maybe [anyone] in the country,” Dunphy added. “He’s a terrific rebounded; he knows where to go. His defensive positioning is extraordinary, I’ve said that all along. He seldom makes a mistake on the defensive end in terms of his positioning. He has great hands, great positioning and he knows what he’s doing out there.

However, the Explorers bounced back from that big blow and responded with a 10-0 run to cut the game to single digits.

Green paced the Explorers scoring 21 points on 10-23 shooting while adding six assists. Williams added 17 points with five rebounds.

But that was the closest La Salle would get as the Owls won their fifth game in a row which ties them with Xavier atop the Atlantic Ten Conference. The win also earns Temple a bye in the upcoming Atlantic Ten Tournament in Atlantic City, N.J. from March 12-14.

“Coach every game says that every game is one step along the way and that’s how we take every game,” Fernandez said. “In this league it’s very hard to play on the road, especially Big 5 games and we have to be prepared. We made a name for ourselves and everybody wants to beat us. We just have to be focused.”

Temple has two games remaining in the regular season: Wednesday at Saint Louis and Saturday against George Washington, which is Senior Day at the Liacouras Center.

Pete Dorchak can be reached at pdorchak@temple.edu.

Another step along the way

The team beat Xavier, who was undefeated in the A-10, last Wednesday and two-win Fordham last Saturday.

Minutes after the men’s basketball team defeated Xavier, 77-72, Wednesday night at the Liacouras Center, Musketeers coach Chris Mack sat at the podium and opened with the following statement.

“That team we played tonight, there’s a reason why they’re 16th in the country,” he said. “In the second half, I thought Temple was terrific on offense, and we couldn’t get the stops we needed to in order to win the game. It’s tough to win here.”

This season, it’s tough to simply beat the Owls. Temple is off to a 17-3 start, its best start since 1993-1994. Thanks to a six-game winning streak and wins in 13 of their last 14 games, the Owls are ranked No. 15 in the country, and they’re in their sixth straight week in the Top 25 rankings.

“I would almost prefer to evaluate who we are and where we are once the season is over,” coach Fran Dunphy said. “Right now, we’re too busy looking ahead to Charlotte on Wednesday.”

Xavier, who has been the face of the Atlantic Ten for the past decade, is taking a backseat to the Owls this season. With the win against the Musketeers, Temple leapfrogged Xavier to gain the top spot in the conference standings.

“We’ve been preaching just another step along the way, and this is another step along the way,” senior guard and captain Ryan Brooks said after the Xavier game.

Temple shot its best percentage of the season – 59.2 percent – as Brooks led the team with 22 points and seven rebounds. He was one of four Owls who scored in double figures. Before the game, Brooks was honored for becoming the 45th player in Temple history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. Brooks entered the Xavier game at 1,015 points after scoring a career-high 29 points in the Owls’ win versus Massachusetts Jan. 16.

“I think we did a good job of getting to spots where we could get shots,” Brooks said last Wednesday. “We thought that if we ran our offense and ran it hard, we were going to get good shots. We did a great job down the stretch.”

The same could be said when Temple traveled to Bronx, N.Y., Saturday afternoon to battle Fordham. The Owls, who shot 28 percent for only 22 points in the first half, exploded for 40 points in the second half for a 62-45 win against the Rams. The win improved Temple’s conference record to 5-0.

And it was a myriad of Owls who produced on the stat sheet. Sophomore guard Juan Fernandez, who scored 15 points with a career-high seven assists against Xavier, paced Temple with 13 points and three assists. He hit two 3-pointers during Temple’s 16-4 run to open the second half.

The Owls’ bench, which played a healthy amount in the second half, outscored the Fordham bench, 26-12. Sophomore forward Scootie Randall scored a career-high 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point range. Freshman guards T.J. DiLeo and Ramone Moore added five and six points, respectively.

“Nobody is selfish,” Moore said. “Everybody is buying into what Coach is saying. It’s just one collective effort. Guys are just buying into whatever we’re trying to do. Winning feels good. At the end of the year, we want to be one of the top teams.”

“I think a couple of guys off the bench did a terrific job,” Dunphy added. “I thought Ramone Moore was really steady today as well. When we really got the separation was when Scootie Randall and T.J. DiLeo came in. T.J. played a great role as well. Those two guys specifically came off the bench in the second half.”

As the winning streak, Top 25 ranking and conference lead continue, the Owls still have not received national praise for the résumé they have put together this season.

Temple players – who are making the conference preseason predictions that picked them to finish fifth look wrong – couldn’t really care less.

“It’s more motivation for us to go out there and show them what we’re capable of doing,” Brooks said. “We’re using that as a motivation factor, the underdog, we like that role. We have to continue the way that we’ve been playing.”

Pete Dorchak can be reached at pdorchak@temple.edu.

Owls shoot down Musketeers in battle of the A-10’s best

In their first game of the new semester, the men’s basketball team moved into first place in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Thanks to a near-perfect second-half shooting the ball, the No. 16 Owls sit atop the conference rankings after a 77-72 win over Xavier Wednesday night at the Liacouras Center.

“Real good win for us. Very pleased with how we played. It was a very important win for us,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said.

The Musketeers, entered tonight’s game with a half game lead over the Owls atop the A-10 standings. Xavier has won the past three Atlantic 10 regular season titles but the Owls have won the last two tournament championships including beating the Musketeers last year in the semifinals.

“We’re playing against a Xavier team that has distinguished themselves from the rest of the league as the face of the league,” senior guard Ryan Brooks said. “This was a big win for us, a big opportunity to go out there and gain first place in the league and what we’re continuing to do over the season.”

The Owls are off to their best start since 1993-1994 opening this season with a 16-3 record. With the win Temple improves to 4-0 in the conference and now holds a half game lead.

“That team we played tonight, there’s a reason why they’re 16th in the country,” Xavier coach Chris Mack said. “In the second half, I thought Temple was terrific on offense and we couldn’t get the stops we needed to in order to win the game. It’s tough to win here.”

The first half was basically both teams answering the others offensive strike. The Owls shot 53 percent from the field while the Musketeers shot 45 percent. The difference was Temple hit four of their six three-point attempts and Xavier shooting 4-13 from behind the three-point line as the Owls entered halftime with a 39-34 lead.

The back-and-forth battle continued through the entire second half but it was Temple’s shooting efficiency that allowed them to keep a strangle-hold on their tight lead. The Owls only took 19 shots in the second half but made 13 of them to finish the game with a 59.2 shooting percentage which stands as their highest clip of the season.

“I think we did a good job of getting to spots where we could get shots,” Brooks said. “We thought that if we ran our offense and ran it hard we were going to get good shots. We did a great job down the stretch.”

Xavier didn’t go away and two three-pointers from sophomore guard Brad Redford cut the Temple lead to 68-65 and then 71-68 both with under a minute to play.

Temple, who has faced their share of free-throw issues this season, was 11-14 in the second half and six free throws from Brooks in the final 22 seconds secured the Owls fifth straight win and also 12 of their last 13.

“We’ve been preaching just another step along the way and this is another step along the way,” Brooks said. “We have to continue to do this and this is a big win for us.”

Brooks led four Owls who scored in double figures with 22 points and seven rebounds. He was honored before the game for becoming the 45th player in Temple history to reach the 1,000 point plateau. Brooks entered tonight’s game at 1,015 points after scoring a career-high 29 points in the Owls win over Massachusetts on Saturday.

Sophomore guard Juan Fernandez finished with a career-high seven assists to go along with 15 points. Junior forward Lavoy Allen scored 16 points with seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Senior guard Luis Guzman added 10 points and four assists in 39 minutes of action.

Xavier sophomore guard Jordan Crawford, who entered tonight’s game as the leading scorer in the A-10, scored 18 points but shot just 6-16 from the field. Sophomore guard Terrell Holloway scored 13 points with four assists. Senior forward Jason Love was a perfect 6-6 from the field scoring 16 points and seven rebounds.

“Xavier has been the best team in the league for a number of years now,” Dunphy said. “They have a terrific program and I think Chris is doing a great job running the program now. It looks like they are going to be very good for a long period time.”

Currently, Temple sits alone atop the conference standings as they get set to travel to Fordham on Saturday afternoon. The Owls, predicted to finish fifth in the conference, like being overlooked and they’re just focused on the task at hand.

“It’s more motivation for us to go out there and show them what we’re capable of doing,” Brooks said. “We’re using that as a motivation factor, the underdog, we like that role. We have to continue the way that we’ve been playing.”

Pete Dorchak can be reached at pdorchak@temple.edu.

Almost perfect

With the exception of a 32-point loss to then-No. 1 Kansas Jan. 2, the men’s basketball team has won 11 of its last 12 games and earned a Top 25 ranking for the first time since November 2001.

When fall semester classes ended Dec. 9, the men’s basketball team had a modest three-game winning streak and a 7-2 overall record.

But when classes begin for the spring semester today, the Owls will have recorded two signature wins against Big East Conference opponents, opened the Atlantic Ten Conference portion of their schedule 3-0 and achieved a Top 25 ranking for the first time since November 2001. Temple, which finished undefeated in December, currently stands at 15-3 overall and has won 11 of its last 12 games.

“There’s an extreme amount of excitement,” senior guard Ryan Brooks said after the Owls entered the national rankings before the Bowling Green game Dec. 28. “We’re definitely aware that it was hard to get here, and it’s going to be harder to stay here. Every team’s going to give us their best shot, and we’ve got to welcome that.”

Temple moved into the polls after back-to-back victories against then-No. 3 Villanova and Seton Hall. Both Big East teams were undefeated at the time.

The Owls stayed in the rankings, even after a 32-point loss to then-No. 1 Kansas Jan. 2, by beating Mid-American Conference opponents Bowling Green and Northern Illinois and taking care of business against teams like Saint Joseph’s and Penn, which had posted lengthy losing streaks prior to playing Temple. The Hawks had lost three consecutive games and nine of their last 10 games, while the Quakers had a 1-10 record. Rhode Island, at 12-1 entering its matchup, had recorded wins against teams like Davidson, Boston College and Oklahoma State before losing to Temple.

“We’ve been stressing that [conference play] was a new season for us [after the Kansas loss],” Brooks said after the St. Joe’s game Jan. 6. “The first part of the season [nonconference play], we put ourselves in pretty good position. It’s been a great way to start off A-10.

“[Kansas] was a game that really brought us back down to earth,” Brooks added. “That was definitely a learning experience for us and hopefully a turning point [in the season].”

Thanks to playing teams like Kansas and Villanova, the Owls own the 10th best strength of schedule, which takes into account the record of a team’s opponents as well as its opponents’ opponents. RPI, or ratings percentage index, calculates a team’s winning percentage, its opponents’ winning percentage and that of its opponents’ opponents. The Owls rank eighth in that category.

Temple continues to be led by its defense. The Owls are ranked No. 1 in scoring defense, field-goal percentage defense and 3-point percentage defense in the A-10. The 55.5 points the Owls allow per game trail only Arizona State and Southern California in the NCAA’s Division I. Opponents are shooting just 24.9 percent from beyond the arc against the Owls, second in Division I. The University of North Carolina Wilmington defends the 3-point line better – by .1 percent. Temple’s field-goal percentage defense also ranks in the Division I Top 10.

“We’re looking to be flawless on the defensive end, knowing that we’re going to be not quite perfect on the offensive end,” coach Fran Dunphy said following the Hawks game. “Defense is where we have to hang our hat. We’re led by one perimeter guy [Brooks] and one interior guy [junior forward Lavoy Allen], but [players like sophomore guard] Juan Fernandez are really picking it up defensively. Smart guys figure it out that if they’re not on top of their games offensively, they can still help out defensively. But I wasn’t quite sure we could get our numbers to where our numbers are right now.”

On the offensive side of the ball, three players – Brooks, Fernandez and Allen – average double figures. Allen averages a double-double. But, as Dunphy said following the Bowling Green game, the Owls will need more than their “three-and-change fixtures” to continue winning the rest of the season.

“At Seton Hall, it was Scootie Randall’s night. Tonight, it was Ramone Moore’s night. We have the three-and-change fixtures. Lavoy Allen has to be good each night, [Ryan] Brooks has to be good each night, [Juan] Fernandez has to be good each night, and Luis Guzman just has to be solid each night out. That’s what good teams do. Someone steps up.”

The Owls open up spring semester play at the Liacouras Center versus Xavier tomorrow night, followed by a game against Fordham Saturday afternoon in the Bronx.

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Owls hold off Penn at Palestra

More than one month ago, Temple defeated then-No. 3 Villanova in a Big 5 game.

Wednesday, Penn, 1-10 entering the game, had moments when it looked like it would do the same to No. 19 Temple.

“It happened for us against Villanova, and I think the opposite [almost] happened today,” sophomore guard Juan Fernandez said.

With a little more than eight minutes remaining in the game, the Quakers (1-11 overall, 0-2 Big 5) had cut the Owls’ lead to just five points. But Fernandez and senior guard Ryan Brooks scored 11 of the team’s next 15 points to help provide the final margin of victory at 60-45.

Temple (14-3 overall, 2-0 Big 5) did not look to its guards early, though, instead choosing to work the ball inside through forwards Micheal Eric and Lavoy Allen. The duo scored the Owls’ first 12 points before Fernandez hit back-to-back 3-pointers.

“We had an opportunity to go inside early, and that was something that we wanted to focus on, getting the ball to Mike and Lavoy early in the game,” Brooks said. “We were just looking to find them. I think we got away from that a little bit and settled for jump shots. Again, I think in the second half, there might have been times where we settled for jump shots. Being aggressive, getting to the basket, that’s when good things happened.”

Eric and Allen finished with a combined 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Still, the Owls outscored the Quakers 36-20 in the paint and 19-2 in second-chance points. Brooks and Fernandez led the way for the Owls with 15 and 12 points, respectively. The two had five and six points before the second half started but jump-started the offense when Penn narrowed the gap to 45-40.

“One of the things Coach Dunphy said before the game was that they have nothing to lose, and they’re going to come into the game with that mindset,” Brooks said. “I think not only the young guys but the older guys as well have to be aware of that. I think there were stretches where we were coming down where maybe Penn had a little bit more fire, and we can’t let that happen.”

“I thought they played harder than us,” Dunphy added. “I thought they wanted the game more than we did. We knew we had to have it, but their will was greater than ours. We just found a way to win the game. I think we learned a valuable lesson. It’s a game that they obviously have the opportunity to knock off Temple, and that’s what they want to do. We were almost in a protect mode more than in an attack mode.”

The Quakers led once during the game at 5-4, but every time the Owls looked as though they were about to pull away, Penn answered. Temple led, 33-24, at halftime thanks to a 9-2 run. The Owls then opened the second half with seven straight points before Penn scored 10 consecutive points of its own four minutes later to climb within five. The Quakers would get no closer, despite being outrebounded by just two and holding the Owls to 29.4 percent shooting from beyond the arc and a turnovers-to-assists ratio of 9-to-11.

Game Notes: Actor Denzel Washington and his wife sat behind press row to take in the Big 5 game. Washington’s son, Malcolm, is a freshman walk-on for the Quakers…Governor Ed Rendell also attended his first Penn game of the season…The game marked the first home game for Penn’s interim coach Jerome Allen, who played for Dunphy during his time at Penn. “At the end of the day, this game wasn’t about Fran Dunphy and Jerome Allen, it was about Lavoy Allen and Ryan Brooks and Temple versus Penn,” Allen said. “The end result was that they won the game, so over the course of 40 minutes, they executed better. We had a lot of bright spots. We battled back. We cut it to five.”

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Allen, Eric answer inside in A-10 opener

After a 32-point loss to No. 1 Kansas Saturday, the men’s basketball team did its best Jayhawks impression against Saint Joseph’s in the Owls’ Atlantic Ten Conference opener Wednesday night.

No. 21 Temple defeated St. Joe’s, 73-46, to open the A-10 portion of the schedule 1-0 and improve to 12-3 overall. The Hawks (4-9 overall 0-1 A-10) have now lost three games in a row and nine of their last 10. The Owls face Rhode Island on the road Sunday.

“I think it was very important for us to come back after a very tough loss against Kansas and get back in the right direction,” senior guard Ryan Brooks said. “[Kansas] was a tough game to watch. That was a game that really brought us back down to earth and embarrassed us. That was a learning point for us and hopefully the turning point in the season.

“We knew that it was a new season for us,” Brooks said. “The first part of the season we put ourselves in a good position. This was a great way to start off A-10.”

The Hawks never led in the game but did answer the Owls’ opening 7-0 run with an 11-4 run of their own to tie the game at 11 all. They would never get closer, as Temple answered with a 9-0 run and led by 10 points at halftime.

With junior forward Lavoy Allen held out of the starting lineup because he showed up 10 minutes late to a film session, sophomore forward/center Micheal Eric dominated inside early. He scored six of the team’s first nine points and a career-high 13 in his 15 minutes of action.

“I was happy for Mike,” coach Fran Dunphy said. “He made a one-handed layup in the lane and had a great finish in there. Mike gave us what we needed him to give us early on. I think he decided he was going to post up and post up hard, catch the basketball and do some things inside.

“We did have a size advantage inside, but I don’t think we have great post players yet,” Dunphy added.

When Allen did get into the game with 11:57 remaining in the first half, he built off what Eric started. Allen grabbed 11 rebounds and scored 20 points, his fourth double-double of the season. The Owls outscored the Hawks 46-18 in the paint and 21-4 on second-chance points. They also outrebounded St. Joe’s 49-25.

“The game is in the numbers,” St. Joe’s coach Phil Martelli said. “I’ve always been a big believer that it’s a numeric game. We had no double-figure scorers. We got 2-to-1 outrebounded. They had 46 points in the lane.”

The Hawks did hold sophomore guard Juan Fernandez to no points on 0-for-10 shooting.

Game Notes: Temple has now beaten St. Joe’s six straight times…The Owls also ruined the Hawks’ three-game winning streak in A-10 openers…The last time St. Joe’s played Temple when it was ranked was Feb. 29, 2000. The Hawks won that game by three points…Senior forward Rafael DeLeon scored his first career points on a layup that provided the final margin of victory.

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Déjà vu

Last season, Temple used a 35-point explosion from then-senior guard Dionte Christmas to take down No. 8 Tennessee.

Today, sophomore guard Juan Fernandez scored a career-high 33 points, and the Owls defeated the No. 3-ranked and previously undefeated Villanova Wildcats, 75-65.

Temple (8-2 overall, 1-0 Big 5) had not beaten a Top 5 opponent since Feb. 20, 2000, when the Owls won, 77-69, against No. 1 Cincinnati.

“Well, I didn’t start the game well,” Fernandez said. “I shot an air-ball. I was thinking about the game this whole week. I knew it was important for us. We haven’t beaten Villanova in a long time [since 2004]. I think we needed this win. We needed to prove ourselves. I was feeling good. Today was my turn, but maybe next time it’ll be Lavoy [Allen’s] or [Ryan] Brooks’.”

It didn’t look like an upset early, though.

The Owls scored first, but the Wildcats (9-1 overall, 3-1 Big 5) rode two separate runs of 7-0 and 17-4 to increase their lead to as much as 14 points on two occasions in the first half.

At that point, coach Fran Dunphy took a gamble. Fernandez had picked up his second foul halfway through the first half. With 4 minutes, 28 seconds remaining, Dunphy put Fernandez back into the game.

“I’d like to sit here and say what a genius move it was, but we were in trouble,” Dunphy said. “We needed one of our best scorers in the game because we were not scoring. We were not doing what we needed to do. Juan saved us again at the end of the first half.”

Fernandez promptly scored five of the Owls’ next 12 points, and Temple closed the gap to a six-point deficit, 37-31, at halftime.

“Fortunately, we were down six points,” senior guard Ryan Brooks said. “We gave them a lot of opportunities with a lot of questionable shots we took on the offensive end, which led to their transition. Coach harped on coming out the first five minutes, and that it was going to be crucial. We happened to go on that 11-0 run, which sparked us and gave us the confidence for the rest of the half.”

During that 11-0 run to open up the second half, Fernandez scored five more points (he had 17 at halftime), and junior Craig Williams knocked down two 3-pointers to give Temple its first lead of the game since the Owls led, 2-0 and 2-1, at the start of the game. The Owls would not relinquish it this time.

“Certainly, the start of the second half was important, but I would say only a little bit less important than the end of the first half,” Dunphy said. “We were in big trouble. We could have really been hurting at halftime, but we cut it to six [points]. Craig Williams makes a couple 3s, Juan makes a 3 to give us some cushion because you knew they were going to make a run. Really, the end of the first half was critical for us.”

Twice, at 42-41 and 45-44, Villanova cut the Owls’ lead to one point. Both times, the Owls responded, first on a 3-pointer from Fernandez, the other time on a jumper from junior forward Lavoy Allen. Allen finished with a double-double of 10 points and 17 rebounds, half of the team’s total.

Three times, the Wildcats clawed to within two points, including at 63-61 with 4:27 remaining in the game. Fernandez answered with his seventh and final 3-pointer of the day. Altogether, the Owls shot 50 percent from 3-point land (54.2 percent overall from the field) and made 7-of-11 in the second half. Fernandez himself made 7-of-9 for the game and all four of his attempts in the second half.

“When you’re feeling good, I don’t know, I can’t explain the feeling,” Fernandez said. “You just throw it up there, and it goes in.

Dunphy called Fernandez’s play “unconscious.” For the guard’s fellow players, it got to the point, Brooks said, where they knew as soon as Fernandez shot the ball that it would go in, so they would immediately get back on defense.

“I was just telling him in the locker room that it got to the point where anything he shot, I was just running back down the court because I already thought it was good,” Brooks said. “Everything he shot was just the perfect release. You could tell because when he shot it, he knew it was good and went running back down the court. When you see someone like that, you want to get them the ball but not force it to them and get it to them in the flow of the offense.”

Villanova senior guard Scottie Reynolds said that “once a guy like that gets it going, it’s hard to stop him.”

“We watched film on him,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “I thought he might hurt us more creating shots for the other guys but not like that. He was amazing, he really was. He hit every big shot. You’ve got to give the kid a lot of credit.”

As the clock ticked down, Brooks, who tallied 20 points, sealed the deal for Temple. On back-to-back possessions, and with the shot clock winding down, he drove to the lane and hit two layups.

“One thing that we preach is just being aware of the shot clock,” Brooks said. “I just happened to have the ball, and the shot clock was winding down, and I had to make a play. Thankfully, those shots went down.”

Villanova junior forward Antonio Peña scored with 52.7 seconds left, and then it came down to Temple hitting its foul shots.

Freshman forward Rahlir Jefferson and senior guard Luis Guzman each hit the front ends of their 1-and-1s, and Brooks hit both foul shots for the final margin of victory.

And like the Dec. 13 win last year, the students stormed the court at the end.

“It’s my first time beating a ranked team,” Fernandez said. “I’m hoping we can do it more often.”

Temple returns to action Saturday against undefeated Seton Hall at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

“We’re going to enjoy the win,” Dunphy said. “What it’s going to do for us down the line, I have no idea. We’ll figure that out later on.”

Game Notes: Dunphy said sophomore forward/center Micheal Eric most likely re-tweaked the medial collateral ligament in his right knee that kept him out of the lineup for three games earlier this season. Eric went up for a rebound at the 19-minute mark of the second half and landed on the knee. After trying to walk it off, he crumpled to the ground in pain and did not return to the game. Williams took his spot…Three Villanova players finished in double figures – Reynolds (23 points), Peña (16 points) and junior guard Corey Fisher (14 points)…Before this Big 5 loss, Villanova had won 21 of its last 22 Big 5 games, a streak that started after a 53-52 loss to Temple back in the 2004-2005 season…The announced attendance at the Liacouras Center was 8,449 people, the largest home crowd to date this season…Christmas was in that crowd with Golden State rookie guard Stephen Curry. President Ann Weaver Hart was, too.

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Struggles against Saint John’s

The men’s basketball team scored fewer than 50 points for the second straight time against a Big East Conference opponent this season.

And for the second straight time, the Owls lost.

In Saturday’s Philly Hoop Group Classic finale at the Palestra, Saint John’s defeated the Owls, 55-48.

Temple (4-2) fell to then-No. 20 Georgetown, 46-45, in the second game of the season.

Like that earlier game at the Verizon Center, the Owls struggled to score. Though the defense held St. John’s (5-0) to 32.7 percent shooting from the field in the game, the Owls themselves shot just 28.1 percent from the field and 3-of-14 from 3-point range. Connecting on 9-of-15 free throws did not help the cause either, though the Red Storm attempted double that amount.

“We were at the rim a number of times but couldn’t finish,” coach Fran Dunphy said. “I wasn’t overly impressed with our toughness tonight, and I think that’s what it comes down to sometimes. That was the biggest disappointment tonight.”

“They’ve been calling fouls and the whistles have been going off all weekend,” senior guard Ryan Brooks added. “That’s how they decided they were going to call all these games this weekend. We’ve just got to adjust, and I don’t think we did a great job adjusting, necessarily.”

“The refs, they had stretches where they called every foul and stretches where they let everything go,” Fernandez added. “It’s hard to know what’s coming. It was not because of the refs that we lost the game. We’ve got to learn from this.”

Temple’s three leading scorers, Brooks, junior forward Lavoy Allen and sophomore point guard Juan Fernandez combined to go 9-for-35 and only attempted three free throws. Allen finished with nine points and four rebounds after going to the bench at the 9 minute, 4 second mark in the first half with two fouls. He did not even score his first points of the game until almost two minutes into the second half. In Allen’s absence, Brooks finished with eight points and five rebounds on 3-of-14 shooting. He too did not contribute a bucket until he hit a 3-pointer with slightly less than four minutes remaining in the first half. Fernandez shot 2-of-10, but more importantly, he committed four turnovers to go with his four assists. In the first half, the Owls as a team had a 3-to-10 assists-to-turnover ratio, and they did not take advantage of the Red Storm’s 4-to-17 overall mark in that category.

“I had three turnovers in the first half,” Fernandez said. “I wasn’t ready for the challenge in the first half. I tried to change it up in the second half. I don’t think I helped my team in the first half.”

But, the Owls led 22-21 at halftime despite those statistics. The Red Storm came out of the locker room on a 13-2 run that increased the lead to 34-24. Still, Temple had a chance. With about eight minutes remaining in the game and the Owls trailing, 41-34, St. John’s junior guard Dwight Hardy (who fueled the run with eight of those points), intentionally fouled sophomore guard Ramone Moore. Moore stepped to the line and missed both free throws. The Owls did not score on that possession.

“We actually talked about that during our timeouts and just now in the locker room,” Brooks said. “That particular play [and that possession] was huge. We didn’t talk about not converting on that possession but on those two free throws. They were big. We know that. We were still in the ballgame. Our offense hurt us tonight.”

The Owls now travel to Western Michigan Tuesday and then play three games against last year’s National Invitational Tournament champion Penn State, Miami (Ohio), which almost upset then-No. 4 Kentucky earlier this season, and No. 4 Villanova.

Game Notes: Dunphy said sophomore forward/center Micheal Eric has a sprained medial collateral ligament in his knee and that the trainer said he should give it a week to 10 days off. “Micheal wanted to play, but I didn’t feel like I should push the issue,” Dunphy said…With the win, St. John’s improves to 15-14 all-time at the Palestra, as this game broke the tie…The Red Storm once again made their move in the second half. In their 77-68 defeat of Siena Friday, St. John’s scored 46 points on 63 percent shooting.

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Victory versus Virginia Tech

“I thought watching that Georgetown game [a 46-45 Temple loss] was painful,” Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. “This game made that game look like the [Harlem] Globetrotters were playing. This game was kind of similar.”

Except for one small difference – the men’s basketball team made a few more shots and won this game.

The Owls (4-1) defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies (3-1), 61-50, in their third game in the Philly Hoop Group Classic.

Temple held its opponent to fewer than 50 points for the fourth time in five games. The Hokies shot just 29.8 percent from the field and 3-of-15 from 3-point range. Only one Virginia Tech player scored more than six points: junior guard Malcolm Delaney, who scored a game-high 32 points.

“I like to think we’re a pretty good defensive basketball team,” coach Fran Dunphy said. “Obviously, we didn’t do much against Delaney in the second half. He was terrific, but some of it was we didn’t step out and hedge on him when he was going to step up and shoot, but for the most part, we’re getting there as a defensive team. I give Lavoy a lot of that credit. He’s a nice anchor for us to have.”

Delaney scored just four points in the first half but accounted for 28 of Virginia Tech’s 33 points in the second. He scored 15 of those 28 points with four fouls.

“He got shots,” Greenberg said. “We’ve got to get him shots and get him up the floor. It helps us get up the floor. [This loss] has very little to do with Malcolm. I know what I’m going to get out of Malcolm. We’ve got to get more out of Jeff Allen. We’ve got to get more out of Victor Davila. We’ve got to get something from those other perimeter guys. We just couldn’t score.”

Outside of Delaney, the top returning scorer in the entire Atlantic Coast Conference, the Hokies could not get much going offensively. Junior forward Jeff Allen, their second leading scorer at 12.7 points per game (Delaney averages 17.7 points per game in the young season), finished with six points and nine rebounds. He also spent the last 2 minutes, 56 seconds of the game on the bench, as he fouled out.

“Someone else has got to step up,” Greenberg said. “We’ve got to establish [sophomore center] Victor Davila. Jeff Allen’s got to stay out of foul trouble. We need those wing guys to step. Guys have to seize opportunities.”

The Owls had their share of foul trouble, too. With 15:24 remaining in the game, Virginia Tech was already in the bonus. In the first half, senior guard Ryan Brooks and redshirt sophomore Ramone Moore picked up two early fouls. In both situations, junior forward Lavoy Allen stepped up and scored.

With Brooks and Moore out, Allen scored eight of Temple’s last 19 points in the first half, as the Owls led, 27-17.

And as Virginia Tech closed the gap to within four points early in the second half at 34-30, Allen scored six of Temple’s next eight points, the last two on a dunk following a pass from sophomore point guard Juan Fernandez, to increase the lead back to 10 points at 42-32. Allen finished with 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field to go with 10 rebounds. The Hokies never got closer.

“I think he’s getting it,” Dunphy said. “He’s a terrific rebounder as well. I think these guys found him for some easy baskets. The two best plays that he made for me were both in the second half – a lean in and a tip in on a missed shot. The dunks I think are great, but that’s his teammates as much as him.

“We wanted to get the ball down low to Lavoy,” Dunphy added. “He’s not only a good scorer down there, but he’s also a good passer. That was our thought. I’m not sure we always took advantage of that, though.”

Allen credited Fernandez and his guards’ abilities to get into the lane for opening up his shots.

“It’s not something you prepare,” Fernandez said. “It’s just something that happens as the game goes on. I know that Craig [Williams] likes to pop out [to the 3-point line] all the time, and Lavoy likes to go to the basket. I’m still trying to get to know these guys. I’m still trying to figure out where they feel comfortable with me getting them the ball. I wasn’t making shots when I was going into the lane, so I was trying to find the open guy, and he was the open guy.

“But I like those dunks,” he added.

For his part, Greenberg complimented Allen’s balance and compared him to University of North Carolina senior forward Deon Thompson.

“He’s just a good player,” Greenberg said.

Allen will get his chance to show that again tomorrow, as the Owls return to action at the Palestra against Big East Conference opponent Saint John’s, which upset Siena earlier tonight.

Game Notes: Virginia Tech was making its first ever trip to the Palestra…The Hokies and the Owls were both members of the Atlantic Ten Conference from 1995-2000…Delaney and Allen are the No. 2 returning scoring combo in the ACC this season…Temple increases its lead in the all-time series by a 10-1 margin.

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

Bounce-back against Ball State

After playing two close games against No. 18 Georgetown and Siena, the men’s basketball team bounced back against Ball State and won, 66-46.

The Owls (3-1) trailed only once in the game at 5-4 and increased their lead to as large as 22 points before Ball State’s redshirt freshman center Zach Fields hit a layup as time expired in the second half.

“I thought overall our defense was pretty good. We extended a lot of energy on defense,” coach Fran Dunphy said. “I thought Lavoy did a very good job guarding [sophomore forward/center Jarrod] Jones. He’s a very good player and [was] the Freshman of the Year in the [Mid-American Conference].

“I think, again, that I would credit Lavoy and Brooks for the most part,” Dunphy added. “They really take great pride in what it is they do defensively. Lavoy is seldom ever out of position and makes up for a lot of mistakes others may have. Am I surprised? With those two guys as your foundation, I’m not that surprised.”

Temple held Ball State (2-1) to just 29.6 percent shooting from the field in the second half and 38.6 percent shooting for the entire game. Despite the fact that the Cardinals outrebounded the Owls, 31-27, Temple held significant advantages in points in the paint, as well as points off turnovers, second-chance points and fastbreak points. At the half, Ball State had put up zeros in the latter three categories.

“The constant that we have is that our defense is pretty good,” Dunphy said. “I think we’re working hard at it, and we’re buying into it. Tonight, when we’re assisting on that many field goals [23 assists on 27 field goals], I’m guessing we’re making good cuts, I’m guessing we’re seeing our teammates pretty well, also. Those are the things a coach likes to see.”

Sophomore point guard Juan Fernandez, who played with a bandage on his left hand after he suffered a sprained thumb going for a loose ball in practice Monday, tied his career high in assists with five. More importantly, he contributed to the 23-to-8 assist-to-turnover ratio, as he committed no turnovers. Junior forward Lavoy Allen and senior guard Ryan Brooks broke their previous career highs in assists with seven each. Allen added 16 points and nine rebounds, narrowly missing a double-double. Brooks broke out of his slump during the prior two games to lead all scorers with 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the floor.

“He’s just a really good basketball player and a really solid guy,” Dunphy said. “He made some big shots in the first half and got us off to a solid start, and tonight, he made tremendous cuts to the basket. He got himself to the foul line as well. That’s certainly one thing we need to do more of is get ourselves to the line. There’s a knack to that. Lavoy has no foul shots. He’s got to get to the line somehow, someway. But Ryan Brooks played another solid game, and he was very solid defensively as well.”

“It all starts with defense, and defense creates our offense,” Brooks said. “When we’re playing defense like we did the majority of this game, we’re going to get easier buckets for all of us. We’ve been able to create for others and create for ourselves.

“You can’t dwell on previous games,” he added. “Once that game’s over with, you’ve just got to be able to come back and be able to execute and get the job done. It shows toughness and a willingness to fight hard. Just go out every game, and focus on that game only. Then we can move on from there.”

Game Notes: Dunphy said as the season progresses that he would prefer to use about eight players on the court, including freshman forward Rahlir Jefferson and freshman guard T.J. DiLeo…Sophomore center Micheal Eric, who finished with two points and three rebounds, played just 13 minutes after he tweaked his knee in the first half…Fernandez said he didn’t know what was going to happen until the X-rays came back negative this morning. “It was just a sprained muscle. I wanted to play. The bandage wasn’t that comfortable, for sure, but I wanted to be in there. I wanted to help my team today.”

Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.

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