Shooting Stars

With a week off to ponder their upset loss to Richmond, the men’s basketball team responded in a big way.

Thanks to a record setting day shooting the ball, the No. 21 Owls won the second game of Temple’s double-header, beating Rhode Island 78-56 Saturday afternoon at the Liacouras Center.

“It was kind of a long week in a positive way,“ senior guard and co-captain Ryan Brooks. “Coach was on us all week hooting and hollering as your coach should and getting on us kind of challenging us individually and as a team. He just preached that we were going to have to come out this game more mentally and physically tougher a team than Rhode Island was.”

This is the second meeting between these two teams in a little over a month. The Owls beat the Rams in Kingston Jan. 10 in overtime, 68-64. With Temple sweeping the season series, the Owls now sit at 8-2 in the Atlantic Ten Conference which places them in a tie for second place just a half game behind Richmond and Xavier.

“Temple did a great job of attacking the bucket, getting open shots; they did a great job of shooting the basketball,” Rams coach Jim Baron said. “The first time that we played I thought we did a much better job of defending them.”

It was a record setting day on a myriad of levels for the Owls who with today’s win accomplished their third straight 20-win season which is their 31st in school history. Temple (20-5, 8-2) scored their highest point total of the season while their top-ranked defense in the A-10 held Rhode Island to their lowest scoring total of the year.

Today’s game was a complete role reversal for the Owls compared to last weekend in Richmond. Last Saturday the Spiders shot 77 percent from the field in the first half to jump out to a 44-26 lead en route to a 71-54 victory.

This afternoon, Temple shot 74 percent as they entered halftime with a 43-23 advantage. The Owls point total eclipsed their 42 points at halftime against Duquesne for their highest mark in the first half. Temple finished the game with a school-record 68.6 percent shooting percentage, two tenths a percentage point better than 93-80 victory over Rhode Island on Feb. 21, 1973.

“During the course of the game we noticed that we were shooting a very high percentage but we felt that the reason we were doing that was because we were getting good stops on defense and moving the ball on offense and pretty much getting a lot of shots we wanted,” Brooks said.

Brooks and the Owls probably wanted to forget about last weekend’s drubbing by Richmond but they had nearly a week off to think about the loss. Sophomore forward Micheal Eric said that the time off allowed the team and himself especially a chance to get back to the basics.

“A long week of practice and a lot of running,” Eric said. “I got in better shape, I had time to work on a lot of things, a lot of offensive steps with the big men coach, Coach [Sean] Trice. I just had a lot of time to work on stuff.”

Eric’s hard work paid off big time today as he scored a career-high 19 points on 9-10 shooting from the field. He added four rebounds, four assists and two blocks in 25 minutes.

“I thought we looked for Mike more than we have had in a while and he came through. He did a great job inside,“ Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “To get where he was today offensively was a nice thing for him and I’m happy for his success.”

Brooks said that it was important that the big men for the Owls got into the action early in the game. Junior forward Lavoy Allen also contributed inside with 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four blocks.

“I think we did a great job of moving the ball,“ Brooks said. “Our inside players, Micheal and Lavoy, did a great job of finishing early and setting the tone and they really got the crowd into it and us into it. They did a great job of starting us and motivating us to play well.”

“I think our assistant coaches do a great job of grabbing him every chance they get and Mike I think is starting to understand that coming a half hour early and staying a half hour late and working on your game can be a real asset to how you play,” Dunphy said.

Dunphy is hoping that Eric will transform into a reliable asset down low for the Owls on a nightly basis. Eric missed four games earlier in the season and has been bothered by his knee which keeps him around 15-20 minutes a game. Eric says he’s healthy and is ready to make a big contribution the rest of the way.

“They need somebody to be more aggressive in the paint so they can have open shots on the wing,” he said. “I think that’s what I’m bringing and they’re trusting me and I have to produce for them so they can trust me more.”

There is also is some faith in knowing that if one player has an off night that another will surely step in and take over the scoring load. Brooks, who went 1-8 with just two points (his lowest total of the season) at Richmond, responded by shooting 7-8 for 18 points while knocking down all four of his three-point attempts. Sophomore guard Ramone Moore, starting his second game in place of sophomore guard Juan Fernandez, scored 12 points on 6-9 shooting. Moore has reached double digits in points in each of the last four games.

The Rams (19-5, 7-4) were unable to get anything going on the offensive side of the ball. Only three players, senior guard Keith Cothran, junior forward Delroy James and freshman guard Akeem Richmond, reached double figures. Cothran was averaging a team-high 15.6 points a game. Senior forward Lamonte Ulmer, who came into the game averaging 12 points and seven rebounds, was held to just six points on 2-9 shooting.

“We were able to kind of get back to square one a little bit and clean up some things,” Brooks said. “Tonight we came out with a very good start and hopefully we can keep this going.”

The Owls are back in action Wednesday when they travel to St. Bonaventure (10-13, 3-7 A-10). Next Saturday, Temple travels to the Palestra to battle Big 5 rival Saint Joseph’s (9-15, 3-7 A-10).

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

Game Notes: Temple mascot, Hooter the Owl, celebrated his birthday this afternoon. The Philly Phanatic, Flyers Girls and Temple’s T-Bird were all in attendance… Today’s attendance was announced at 7,080… With the win, Temple leads the series, 53-15, and has won the previous three meetings.

Looking to rebound after loss

Temple will face Rhode Island this Saturday.

By the time the men’s basketball team steps on the court Saturday afternoon at the Liacouras Center, Temple (19-5 overall, 7-2 Atlantic Ten Conference) will have had a week to ponder its 71-54 upset loss last Saturday at Richmond.

The top-ranked defense in the A-10 was unable to stop a surging Spiders team that has now won six of its last seven games (18-6 overall, 7-2 A-10). Richmond played nearly flawless basketball in the first half, as the Spiders shot 77 percent from the field to jump out to a 44-26 halftime lead. The Owls outscored Richmond by one point in the second half, but that wasn’t nearly enough, as Spiders junior guard Kevin Anderson scored 29 points.

With the dominating loss on their minds for nearly a week, the now No. 21 Owls will look to respond Saturday afternoon when the Rhode Island Rams travel to the Liacouras Center for the second half of a Temple basketball doubleheader. The women will battle the Charlotte 49ers at 1 p.m.

Saturday’s battle will be the second in just more than a month between the two teams, both of whom are in the top five in the A-10 standings. The Owls sit in third place, while the Rams (18-3 overall, 6-2 A-10) are tied with Richmond for fourth. Back on Jan. 10, when the teams played in Kingston, R.I., senior guard Ryan Brooks scored eight of his 16 points in overtime, and Temple won its ninth game in a row, 68-64.

The Temple big men will try to avoid a repeat performance of last month’s game in Rhode Island. Rams forwards, senior Lamonte Ulmer and junior Delroy James, torched the Owls on the inside for 31 points and 15 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive glass.

James is second on the team in scoring and averages nearly a double-double with almost 14 points and 10 rebounds a game. Rhode Island tops the A-10 in blocks per game with nearly six. James has 28 this season. Ulmer, who scored 17 points with 10 boards in the Rams’ win against Massachusetts last Saturday, averages more than 11 points per game with eight rebounds.

The Owls will also have their hands full guarding the Rhode Island backcourt. Senior guard Keith Cothran leads the Rams in scoring with 16 points per game. Cothran, who left last week’s game against La Salle with an ankle injury, returned late in the second half. His basket helped the Rams hold on for a 90-83 victory versus the Explorers. Cothran scored 18 points last month against Temple, and his 1,000th career point came in overtime.

The Rams also have some weapons off the bench. In fact, two of their bench players rank in the Top 5 in team scoring. Freshman guard Akeem Richmond is a 3-point threat for the Rams. Richmond, who hit six 3-pointers against UMass, now has 47 on the season. He needs four more to break Tyson Wheeler’s school record.

The Temple defense needs to be on its A-game if it wants to avoid its second loss in as many games. The Owls lead the A-10 in scoring defense by allowing 57.6 points per game. Rhode Island is second in the conference in scoring offense and averages nearly 78 points per game. The Owls have to avoid getting into a shootout with a dangerous Rams offense to stop a mini-losing streak.

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

Owls school Rhode Island in Atlantic Ten home opener

It’s been exactly five weeks since the women’s basketball team played a game at the Liacouras Center.
And while the Owls (10-5, 2-0 A-10) went 4-2 on their recent six-game road trip, today’s home cooking was certainly nice, as they beat Rhode Island (7-9, 0-1 A-10) 95-48 in their Atlantic Ten home opener and School Day.
“It was very nice coming home, but I actually forgot that we had to go around and shake hands after the game because it’s been so long since we’ve been here,” coach Tonya Cardoza said.
Temple is now 7-0 all time on School Day.
“It’s nice to have a crowd,” sophomore guard Lindsay Kimmel said. “When we go other places and they have huge crowds, we wish we could get more people in. So when the environment is packed, it gets everybody on the team excited.”
And it showed, as the Owls started out on a roll, opening the game on an 8-0 run that lasted the first four minutes of the game. Once the Rams responded with a basket, Temple followed up with another run, this time 11-0. They closed out the half by scoring 17 of the last 19 points for a 51-18 lead.
“At halftime I just told them that it’s a new ballgame,” Cardoza said. “And we’ve been talking about playing 40 good minutes of basketball for a while now.”
The offense was fueled by seven first half 3-pointers, four by Kimmel, and 20 points in the paint, as the Owls outrebounded the Rams 26-15 in the first half and 50-29 overall.
Kimmel, freshman forward Kristen McCarthy and senior forward Shenita Landry all finished the game with new career highs, scoring 22, 19 and 19 points respectively. All five starters scored in double figures.
Temple ended the game with 11 3-pointers, one shy of the school record. Kimmel tied her personal best in the category with six.
“Lindsay has opportunities, but today I think she was a little more focused,” Cardoza said. “Sometimes she has shots and is just looking to see if it goes in, but today she shot them knowing that they were going in. Once Lindsay started making shots, they kept finding her and making sure she made even more.”
But besides the offensive barrage, the Owls’ defense held Rhode Island’s leading scorer, sophomore guard Megan Shoniker, who entered the game averaging 11.8 points per game, scoreless until 9:17 left in the game. She finished with five points.
The Rams as a whole shot under 25 percent from the field in the first half, finishing at 26.2 percent and committing 14 turnovers. Temple, on the other hand, shot lights out, connecting on almost 60 percent of its shots.
“A lot of teams have been scoring on us. It’s more just that we’ve allowed people to come right at us instead of having a defensive presence,” Cardoza said. “The last two games we were able to stop their leading scorers from scoring. We don’t want their best players to get their averages.”
The Owls built their lead to as large as 47 points and had an opportunity to go for 100 for the first time since 1994 versus Rutgers.
“When I used to be an assistant coach, whenever you had an opportunity to score 100 points we would always be like, ‘Yeah, let’s get 100,’ Cardoza said. “But as a head coach that’s something you don’t ever want to do. You don’t want to try to embarrass your opponent. I was happy that we didn’t get it. But it was still an unbelievable win for us.”
Jennifer Reardon can be reached at jennifer.reardon@temple.edu.