Temple University Athletics
Temple University
George Washington
#16/20 Temple Wins A-10 Regular Season Championship
3.6.10 | Men's Basketball
Owls take 9th league crown with 70-57 win over GW
Box score | Gallery | A-10 Bracket
PHILADELPHIA - Temple celebrated its seniors before the game and the entire team joined in afterwards as the #16/20 Owls clinched its record ninth Atlantic 10 Conference Championship - and first since 2002 - with a 70-57 win over visiting George Washington Saturday afternoon at the Liacouras Center. With the victory, Temple ends the regular season tied with the 1987-88 squad for the second most regular season wins (26) in school history. The Owls (26-5, 14-2 A-10) have now won seven straight games and enter the A-10 Tournament as the #1 seed. The Colonials, who will be the 10th seed, fall to 16-13, 6-10.
The Owls honored their seniors, Ryan Brooks, Luis Guzman and Rafael DeLeon, before the game, and head coach Fran Dunphy even rewarded the seldom-used walk-on DeLeon with his first collegiate start.
Dunphy, not a fan of Senior Day ceremonies due to the emotion surrounding them, watched his Owls struggle through the first half against the Colonials. There were 11 lead changes in the half which saw Temple turn the ball over an uncharacteristic seven times. The Owls did take a slim 30-29 lead into intermission as Ramone Moore's off-balanced follow of his own miss fall as the buzzer sounded to end the period.
Temple jumped all over GW in the second half, scoring the first 10 points of the frame to take a 40-29 lead on a Lavoy Allen dunk off a nice feed from Guzman.
Allen, who scored all 12 of his points, including the 1000th of his career in the second half, teamed with sophomore forward Micheal Eric (18 points, 6 rebounds), to provide TU with an inside punch that was too much for the Colonials. They combined to shoot 10-of-11 from the field, helping Temple to a 65.5 field goal percentage (19-29) for the period.
Brooks also scored eight of his 14 points in the second half and the Owls only had two turnovers in the final 20 minutes.
George Washington was unable to get closer than eight the remainder of the game as Temple cruised to its first regular season title under Dunphy.
Joseph Katuka led the Colonials with a double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds).
The Temple players, which played before over 30 of the program's all-time greats as well as Hall of Fame coach John Chaney, celebrated with the student-body after the game.
Temple now plays the winner of Tuesday's game featuring #9-seed Duquesne (16-14, 7-9) at #8-seed St. Bonaventure (14-15, 7-9). The Owls' quarterfinal will be held at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall on Friday at noon (Comcast SportsNet/1210 AM WPHT).
