Still, the Hawks' 6-foot-11 forward permitted a pessimistic thought after the fact.
"If I had missed the shot," said Calathes, who had a game-high 24 points, "I [would have] been walking home."
There are worse arenas to have to trudge home from. But the sentiment remains: When St. Joe's and Temple face off, the stakes are higher, even if there has been a falloff in the City Series.
The rivalry received a shot of adrenaline last night.
"I'd be less than honest with you if I didn't tell you that I'm still numb," St. Joe's coach Phil Martelli said. "I'm still trying to figure exactly what happened."
So are the Owls, who played splendidly and did almost everything, but still didn't win. As far as Martelli was concerned, the better team lost.
"That's admirable and magnanimous of my friend," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "But they won the game. They deserve to win the game."
Temple (9-9 overall, 2-2 Atlantic Ten) had its chances, although it would be difficult to fault Mark Tyndale as the sole culprit. The senior guard scored 10 straight points down the stretch, his last bucket giving the Owls a 67-65 lead with 41.8 seconds remaining.
Tyndale even forced a turnover on the ensuing possession. The Hawks then fouled the 68.2 percent foul shooter with 17 seconds to go. But he was long on the first end of a one-and-one, and St. Joe's (12-5, 4-1) had life.
"Please don't remind me about that free throw," Tyndale said. "I think I let my teammates down."
The Hawks' Garrett Williamson dribbled deep, ran into a wall, and kicked out to Rob Ferguson at the top of the key. Tyndale and teammate Dionte Christmas both ran at Ferguson, who had been perfect (5 of 5) from essentially that exact spot. In doing so, Christmas left Calathes, and Ferguson kicked it to his wide-open teammate.
Calathes lined up and sank the biggest shot of his career.
"That's definitely No. 1," Calathes said. "Temple is a huge rivalry. I'm friends with just about every one of those guys."
