Poor Hawks. They never had a chance. The Owls outran them. They outshot them. They shut down their best players.
"That final score doesn't indicate how we were dominated," said Hawks coach Phil Martelli, whose squad (13-8, 3-3 A-10) has lost five of its last seven games. "They dominated. It wasn't that 'Well, we just gave in and we can make these adjustments.' "
The Owls (15-5, 4-2) shot a season-best 60 percent from the field en route to beating St. Joseph's for the 10th consecutive time.
As has been the case most the season, Temple's starting backcourt of Ramone Moore (game-high 21 points), Juan Fernandez (17 points) and Khalif Wyatt (10 points, career-high eight assists, game-high four steals) were hard to stop.
And they made their imprints on the game from the start.
Moore (17), a fifth-year senior guard, and Fernandez (15) combined to score 32 of the Owls' 38 first-half points. Micheal Eric scored Temple's other six first-half points in this his third game back from a fractured right kneecap. The 6-foot-11 center, who came off the bench, finished with 11 points.
While Wyatt didn't score a point, the Norristown High graduate registered six of his assists before intermission.
St. Joseph's talented guard tandem of Langston Galloway (3 of 9 from 7 points) and Carl Jones (1 of 5 for 5 points), on the other hand, were held to a combined 4 for 14 shooting.
"It really wasn't much of a contest," Martelli said. "It wasn't individual. We got waxed, not an individual guy lost his matchup."
The Owls led by as many as 28 points on Moore's foul shot with 3 minutes, 48 seconds left.
But it didn't take long to realize this game would be a blowout.
The Owls built a 24-10 lead 7:55 before intermission on 10-of-16 shooting and stellar defense.
"I think we can still get better," said Fernandez, whose squad tallied four of its seven steals during that stretch. "But our defense is a good as it has been in a while. And we have to keep it going."
The Hawks shot 41 percent from the field and made just 3 of 14 three-point attempts.
Note. This weekend marked the eighth annual Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers Awareness Weekend. Coaches from both teams along with Temple's support staff and student managers wore sneakers on the sidelines.
Contact staff writer Keith Pompey at 610-313-7081 or kpompey@phillynews.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/pompeysgridlock Read his blog at www.philly.com/OwlsInq.
