Postgame audio
Temple: Fran Dunphy, Chris Clark and Mark Tyndale
La Salle: John Giannini and Darnell Harris
Even by John Giannini's own admission, the game was pretty well over at halftime.
Yes, La Salle got within 12 points with 6:28 left in the game, but the hole was just too big to climb out of.
In the end, Temple left the Explorers' dreams of a Big 5 championship in shreds, walking out of Tom Gola Arena with an 85-66 win. It clinched second place in the Atlantic 10 for the Owls -- and took that same City Series title down Broad Street from Olney to Cecil B. Moore.
Temple shot 32-for-66 from the field (48.5%), including 11-for-24 from three-point range (45.8%) and 21-for-42 from two-point range (50.0%), and 10-for-14 from the free throw line (71.4%). Fifteen offensive rebounds, 23 defensive rebounds, 20 assists, seven turnovers, six blocks, five steals and 19 fouls committed.
That adds up to 65 possessions and 1.314 points per possession.
La Salle shot 27-for-61 from the field (44.3%), including 6-for-21 from three-point range (28.6%) and 21-for-40 from two-point range (52.5%), and 6-for-11 from the free throw line (54.5%). Fourteen offensive rebounds, 22 defensive rebounds, 13 assists 12, turnovers, six blocks, one steal and 16 fouls committed.
That adds up to 64 possessions and 1.028 points per possession.
The adage has long been that If you live by the three, you also may well die from it. Darnell Harris led all scorers with 26 points -- 18 in the second half -- but he shot only 4-for-11 from the arc, and 11-for-21 overall.
Harris' first made trey of night made him the top three-point shooter in Atlantic 10 history; his last was the last shot of the game -- and his last ever at Gola -- with 4.8 seconds left.
So the line of the game goes to a guy who has really stepped up in the last few games to become Temple's third scoring option, Chris Clark. And fitting, perhaps, that he did this on the same floor where he also played his last high school game with St. Joe's Prep:
Name |
Min |
FG |
FT |
3pt |
OR |
DR |
TR |
A |
S |
TO |
Blk |
PF |
Eff |
Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C. Clark |
27 |
8-10 |
0-0 |
6-8 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
25 |
22 |
It's Temple's first Big 5 title since 2004-05, when -- like this year -- they tied Villanova for first place at 3-1.
It's also Fran Dunphy's fifth career City Series championship; he won outright in 1994 (2-0) and 2002 (4-0), and in 1992 and 1998 everyone split at 1-1.
We also got two rollouts in the second half. The first came from La Salle's students right at center court of section E3, with 15:41 to play in the 2nd half: "It's OK we like Dr. G better."
And with just over two minutes left in the game, the Temple students at the top of section E1 unfurled one that read "BIG 5 CHAMPS," with an accompanying chant of the same words.
It's always better to have some rollouts than none.
