La Salle eliminated by Temple

By Mike McDonald
Collegian Editor
March 19, 2008

They didn’t come home with the trophy, but the La Salle men’s basketball team certainly made its presence known this weekend in Atlantic City.

Mike Dao - Sophomore Kimmani Barrett goes to the rim against Temple Thursday night.

Just ask Duquesne and Temple.

After a thrilling first-round victory over the Duquesne Dukes, the Explorers had their season ended by the eventual Atlantic 10 champion Temple Owls in a tough battle Thursday night at Boardwalk Hall.

“We feel very fortunate to have won the game,” Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said. “There was a stretch there in the second half when we were in big trouble.”

And for the second time in as many days, the game was decided on a long three point shot.

On Wednesday, it was the Explorers’ Darnell Harris that knocked down a three from seemingly a mile away to give La Salle the lead and the game. But Thursday, it was Temple’s turn.

“I thought that the biggest turning point was when it was a two-point game and Chris Clark made an NBA-range three-point shot that hit the rim twice and seemed to go up near the top of the roof of the building before it dropped through the net,” Giannini said.

The shot in question came with Temple leading 77-75 with 52 seconds left in the game. The three put Temple up by five and basically crushed the Explorers’ chances.

“That shot I made hit every part of the rim, I thought, but I just shot the ball with confidence, and it went in,” Clark said.

“Certainly that [shot] is as much a sign of our good fortune as anything else that went on tonight,” Dunphy said.

The Explorers had one final chance to get back into it, but the three Harris tossed up with under 30 seconds remaining didn’t fall.

“[Clark’s] shot really put us in a situation where everything had to go right,” Giannini said. “We’d have to kind of pull another rabbit out of our hat to win at that point.”

Early on in the game, it looked as though things were going to get ugly. La Salle struggled defensively throughout the first half, as Temple entered halftime shooting a scorching 55.6 percent from the floor. Dionte Christmas’ 19 first-half points fueled the Owls, and they took a 43-35 lead into the break.

The Explorers stepped it up in the game’s second period, as they battled back and forth with Temple before using an 11-0 run to tie the score at 59 with 9:47 remaining. From there, it was a fight to the finish, but free throws by Clark with 1:35 left ultimately gave Temple the lead for good.

In fact, the Explorers led 75-73 with two minutes left in the game but were held scoreless for the rest of the contest, while Temple went on an 11-0 run of their own to put it away.

“I thought it was a great basketball game, especially in the second half,” Giannini said. “We didn’t play as well in the first half as we would have liked, but I thought the second half was very hard-fought.”

The final score was Temple 84, La Salle 75.

Rodney Green led the Explorers with 20 points and seven assists. Harris scored 18, and Yves Mekongo Mbala scored 16 to go with six rebounds.

Christmas scored 29 points to lead all scorers. Mark Tyndale registered a double-double for the Owls with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Sergio Olmos scored 14 points as well, and Clark scored 12 on the night.

Temple went on to defeat Charlotte and St. Joseph’s to capture the Atlantic 10 title and earn an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament. They are listed as the number 12 seed in the South bracket, and they will face Michigan State Thursday at 12:30 p.m.Giannini was - for the most part - happy about his team’s performance.

“I’m real proud of my kids’ effort, and I’m appreciative of how hard they’ve worked to help rebuild this program,” Giannini said.

Harris, who saw his collegiate career come to an end Thursday night, agrees with his coach.

“I’m definitely proud,” Harris said. “We made a lot of progress from last year to this year. We went .500 in the league after finishing last in the league last year and not even making it to the tournament, so I’m really proud of the team and the accomplishments that we made this year.”

According to Giannini, there is a lot to look forward to for this La Salle basketball program.

“I really buy into the saying that this sport reveals character more than it builds it, and I’ve just been fortunate since I’ve been here just to have kids that have been resilient,” Giannini said. “We should have talented, experienced kids, we should have different pieces and La Salle should be a solid program from here on out, and we’re pretty excited about that. We think we have a lot of potential.”

He also addressed the biggest problem the team had this year: defense.

“I’m just convinced having watched us that we probably need to play more zone in the future. We have good, long athletes, but we’re just not that good laterally. Clearly, the greatest difficulty this team had this year was on the defensive end. We really have to look at ways to make sure we’re a whole lot better on that side next year.”

The Explorers may be ready to move on, but they will definitely miss the services of graduating seniors Sherman Diaz and Harris.

“Darnell and Sherman will have great futures after La Salle, and the other kids are going to have more success here as this program continues to improve,” Giannini said.

mcdonaldm2@lasalle.edu