Atlantic 10 Conference Basketball Fans

Temple vs Saint Louis Basketball Recap

Temple 57, Saint Louis 51

A proud basketball program dug deep on Wednesday night in St. Louis, Missouri, and as a result, the Temple Owls are one step away from returning to a place they feel they belong.

Temple basketball - synonymous with excellence during the long and successful era of iconic coach John Chaney - hasn't won a regular-season conference championship since 2002. That drought, however, is likely to end this weekend, because the Owls only need to beat George Washington - 16-12 George Washington, that is - in order to claim their first Atlantic 10 crown in eight years.

All this is possible because Temple went into Chaifetz Arena on Wednesday night and overcame the pesky St. Louis Billikens in a rugged defensive battle. With two of college basketball's better coaches - Temple's Fran Dunphy and SLU's Rick Majerus - coaxing maximum effort out of their clubs, the Owls found just enough of a finishing kick to avoid a road ambush and set themselves up for a piece of conference hardware.

The outlook was defined by alarm and unease for Temple with 9:51 left in regulation. The Billikens - leading 45-43 - had drawn the visitors into a closely-fought contest that felt noticeably precarious. Neither team could shake the other, which was a worrying sign for the Owls given their advantages in terms of talent and athleticism. Majerus and the rest of the Saint Louis coaching staff would have gladly accepted a scenario in which this game came down to one or two possessions in the final minutes; Dunphy and the Temple braintrust preferred to have a cushion heading into the latter stages of this late-season showdown. Given the flow of this fistfight through the first 30 minutes of regulation, it sure seemed as though the SLU crew would get its wish and turn this tilt into a 50-50 game down the stretch.

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Just when Temple seemed to be trapped in the Billikens' defensive web, however, the boys from Philadelphia turned the tide with even better defense of their own. Precisely when Saint Louis seemed likely to attain a position of competitive parity - if not an outright advantage - the Owls altered the calculus in the Gateway City.

Starting at that aforementioned 9:51 mark of the second half, Temple dug in its heels on defense. The Owls didn't light up the scoreboard over the next seven and a half minutes of play, as they scored just eight points in that timespan. However, Temple didn't allow SLU to post a single point during that telltale stretch.

The Owls shut down dribble penetration and forced Majerus's men to repeatedly hoist low-percentage 3-point shots. By stacking together several defensive stops, Temple didn't allow the Billikens to get on the scoreboard again until guard Kwamain Mitchell hit a layup with 2:21 remaining. By that point, however, Temple had attained a 51-45 edge, and when the visitors were able to hit enough foul shots to make that lead stand up, the A-10 title finally became not just a possibility, but a likelihood. If Temple can take care of GW this Saturday in Philly, the Owls will almost surely split the league crown with Xavier and become the top seed for the conference tournament next week. This quality win on the road against SLU will also ensure that Temple becomes the highest-seeded A-10 team in the NCAA Tournament.

What John Chaney developed, Fran Dunphy has continued. With just one more win, Temple can reclaim a piece of its championship heritage in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

By: Matt Zemek
A10-fans.com Staff Writer