No matter. It was business as usual for the Owls, at least when they face the Hawks. This time the difference was 79-65. It was the third win for Temple over St. Joe's this season, and the fifth straight overall.
"It was a straight-up fistfight," St. Joe's coach Phil Martelli said. "Unfortunately, we lost each of the fistfights this year."
Without their biggest hitters playing 100 percent, Temple was able to throw other weapons. Center Sergio Olmos collected 14 points and nine rebounds, and reserve guard Ryan Brooks went for 19 points, draining three of four beyond the arc. Fellow guard Semaj Inge sliced and diced his way to 12 points and Craig Williams came off coach Fran Dunphy's bench and scored all 12 of his points from beyond the arc. He also grabbed five rebounds in his 20 minutes.
"We have a lot of guys who can make shots," said Dunphy, whose team improved to 20-11 and now faces top-seeded Xavier tonight at 6:30 in a semifinal. "If we pay attention to detail, we have a pretty solid game plan that anybody can score at any time. The big concern is that he [Christmas] really starts to go [bad] now. He was a little jittery and got into some foul trouble. Obviously, we're going to need him [tonight] very, very much."
As they do every game. But it was evident early yesterday that Christmas wasn't all there. In the first 6 minutes, he missed all four of his jump shots, had committed a foul and turned the ball over.
Down 14-12 with 11 minutes, 39 seconds left in the half, Dunphy inserted freshman point guard Juan Fernandez into the lineup. When he went back to the bench with 4:31 left before the break, the Owls were leading by 31-19.
