On a guard night, it was the junior forward from Chester who made the biggest shot of the game, a game Temple would win, 76-70.
"I'd hate to think where we'd been without him," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "I was so happy for him when that last jumper that he took goes down. Not only was that a great shot, but the two foul shots previous to that were great, too. He's a great guy and a terrific player."
Temple led for the game's final 33 minutes. The Owls led, 50-40, with 16 minutes left. La Salle was a bit off on offense, but the Explorers came hard. Three times they had the ball with a chance to lead and three times they were denied.
"The better team won," La Salle coach John Giannini said. "You have to be disappointed with giving up nearly 80 points . . . They're very good, They're very hard to stop. They're very talented offensively."
La Salle's defense has been terrific all season, but the Explorers really had not played an offense like Temple's, one that spaces the floor perfectly, has so many crafty players and is always one final pass away from leaving your defense grasping at air.
La Salle had been giving up 63.4 points per game. Temple had more than that with 7 minutes left. Teams had been shooting just 39.1 percent against them. The Owls (12-5, 2-2 Atlantic 10) shot 58.3 percent in the second half and 51.9 percent for the game. Dunphy particularly liked that his team had 10 assists on 14 second-half baskets. The very nice crowd of 8,068 got to see why Temple's offense has been so hard to guard for so long.
"If we're going to be a tournament-type team, we have to do better than 58 percent," Giannini said.
Temple's three wonderful starting guards combine to average 45 points. They had 41 against La Salle.
La Salle's four excellent starting guards average 55 points. They had 54 against Temple.
