Temple beats up on La Salle: Explorers get walloped by Big Five rival on North Broad Street

By Mike McDonald
Collegian Editor
February 7, 2007

After an embarrassing 25 point loss to Temple Sunday, La Salle head coach John Giannini said it best.

“I just think one team clearly outplayed the other,” Giannini said. “I don’t think it’s any more complicated than that.”

The Explorers were outplayed, and then some.

Interestingly enough, though, they actually got off to a decent start. With 11:41 remaining in the first half at the Liacouras Center, La Salle led Temple, 20-18. This is where the momentum shifted, and the Owls embarked on a 38-13 stretch that closed out the half.

The Explorers trailed by 23 at the break, despite shooting 50 percent (14 of 28) from the field. Bad La Salle defense and good Temple shooting combined to create a big offensive output for the Owls. Temple shot 64.7 percent from the floor, and they were an astounding 9 for 13 (69.2 percent) from three point land.

Temple’s Dustin Salisbery was 5 for 7 from three in the half, tallying 17 points to lead all scorers. Dionte Christmas had 13 points of his own. Temple turned 13 Explorer first-half turnovers into 16 Owl points.

The second half was more of the same. The Owls continued to dominate the game in most facets. At the finish, the Explorers held a slight edge in rebounding, but not much else. The final score was Temple 89, La Salle 64.

“We came out with intensity and kept it up in the second half,” Salisbery said. “We played 40 minutes.”

La Salle’s leading scorers were freshmen Kimmani Barrett and Rodney Green, who each scored 12 points.

Temple’s Mark Tyndale led everyone with 22 points, 10 rebounds and four steals.

“They played really good basketball,” Giannini said. “They were very much the opposite of us today.”

On the day, the Explorers had 18 turnovers, while Temple only had eight.

“Our passing is atrocious,” Giannini said. “It’s stunningly bad.”

On several occasions, errant passes by the Explorers led to turnovers and easy points for the Owls, who scored 25 fast break points in the contest.

“I would like us to be a little bit better, and I think we should be,” Giannini said. “Our growth is disappointing. Losing hurts, but not seeing growth is far more hurtful.”

After blowing a game against Charlotte last week, La Salle really needed a win to try and gain some ground in the Atlantic 10. The conference tournament is coming up soon, and if the Explorers can’t kick it into high-gear fast, they will be one of the two teams left out of the A-10 tourney.

The Owls, on the other hand, got a huge boost in their hopes to make the trip to Atlantic City. With the win, they improved to 3-5 in the conference. La Salle dropped to 2-7.

“I think this is a very good win for our team,” Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said. “We just want to make sure we get to Atlantic City.”

Perhaps the worst part for the Explorers is that the four teams that sit directly above them in the conference standings are teams that they have already lost to. Dayton, Temple, Charlotte and St. Bonaventure have all defeated the Explorers, so they really have their work cut out for him. The Feb. 14 rematch with Temple could loom large in the quest to make it to Atlantic City.

mcdonaldm2@lasalle.edu