ATLANTIC CITY — The last time these two teams played, it was a joke. Temple was doubling up La Salle by halftime, and cruised to a 85-66 victory to win a share of the Big 5 title. To make matters worse, it was at La Salle and on Senior Day. The Explorers come into this game trying to make the A-10 semifinals and get some revenge while they’re at it.

FINAL: Temple 84, La Salle 75

(Internet screws up with 2:00 to go, convenient). Clark pulls up from NBA range over Harris, on a shot that hits the side of the rim and bounces in, and the Owls have a five-point lead.

Mekongo Mbala airballs a three on the next possession, and the Explorers are in trouble.

Clark misses the first foul shot, makes the second, putting Temple up by six.

La Salle all but turns it over in order to get the ball to Harris, who attempts an absolutely absurd three that is halfway down, but barely bounces out.

Temple is up by seven, and now in control.Temple employs the Red and Blue Crew’s “Hey Song,” and La Salle runs out the clock.

Harris gives Clark a hug after the game, and Tyndale then embraces the La Salle senior, and has some comforting words for him.

1:35 2nd Half: Temple 77, La Salle 75

Mekongo Mbala hits one from the line, and cut the lead to one with a very nice reverse layup over Olmos.

That is what he does. Harris takes the lead with a monumental three with just over two minutes to go.

Just a few seconds later, Olmos hits an and-1, and the game is tied with his missed FT. Harris pumps Clark, and goes up for a long three that just barely hits the back iron. Harris then makes the mistake of fouling Clark on the long rebound.

3:40 2nd Half: Temple 73, La Salle 69

Harris makes two on the one-and-one, and after a stop Mekongo Mbala picks up Lavoy Allen’s fourth.

4:37 2nd Half: Temple 71, La Salle 67

Guillandeaux, who loves to seal a smaller man an receive a lob, can’t hang on and the ball goes to the Owls, where Allen grabs a strong o-reb and makes one from the line.

Christmas drives baseline and finds Brooks for a three from the corner. Tyndale tries to raise the lead to six, but Guillandeaux draws a charge, and his fourth foul.

Green was on the bench with four fouls, but he’s back in now, and misses a three. I don’t have stats, but he’s been great tonight.

6:46 2nd Half: Temple 67, La Salle 65

I don’t know what the 5-8 Clark was thinking by shooting over two La Salle forwards in the paint, but he makes up for it by hitting a three from the corner.

Barrett scores inside to take the lead, followed by Christmas getting wet on a three to take the advantage back in Temple’s favor.

8:29 2nd Half: Temple 61, La Salle 63

Hello… Harris comes off a screen and buries a long three.

Green makes Temple pay for putting a forward on him and the game is tied for the first time tonight. Christmas comes back by getting to the line, but Barrett swings the ball to Green, who was wide open due to the double-team on Harris.

Somehow, La Salle has taken the lead. Green gets fouled, and will get to build on that.

11:26 2nd Half: Temple 59, La Salle 54

Another post here got deleted, but La Salle has begun to creep back into it. Green scores on the inside, and then dishes to Mekongo Mbala for a dunk. Then, the big man is left alone for a three, which he hits with no problem, and Guillandeaux connects on a trey as well.

Barrett scores, but then Allen dunks it home over him.

15:05 2nd Half: Temple 53, La Salle 41

Sergio Olmos has exploded this half. He starts it off with an 18-footer that he looked like he didn’t really want to take, but since they leave him alone he hits it anyway. Then, Tyndale hits the big Spaniard for a layup, and Olmos scores yet again to up the lead to 14.

Olmos gets to the hoop yet again, prompting another “ole!” chant. Barrett temporarily silences the crowd with a very strong layup.

Halftime: Temple 41, La Salle 35

Green’s fantastic half continues as he feeds Mekongo Mbala on the backdoor cut. After a Harris turnover, Clark lets the clock run down, and gets it to Brooks, but the three at the buzzer won’t go.

It was a great beginning for Temple, but La Salle has proved that it belongs in this game. The Owls lead, but this game is heating up and you never know what will happen with these two teams.

1:11 1st Half: Temple 43, La Salle 33

Harris sinks all three, and it’s a five-point game. Olmos comes back with a nice post move.

Ohhhhhhh man, Harris is starting to feel it, he splashes a three over Clark. Christmas makes a tough shot himself over Guillandeaux to make it a seven-point game, and Brooks gets the lead to eight with a three of his own.

Tyndale passes the ball, but is called with a charge.

3:56 1st Half: Temple 33, La Salle 25

Harris gets pinned on the backboard by Olmos, but it’s called a goaltend. That may have been his first basket of the game, he’s been blanketed by Guzman and company. I really think that was a bad call.

Terrell Williams fouls Olmos, and the La Salle fans chant “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” The freshmen twins have accounted for half of the Explorers’ eight fouls so far.Harris comes off of a screen and misses the three, but he’s fouled and will go to the line for three.

5:28 1st Half: Temple 31, La Salle 20

La Salle is getting an offensive rebound every other minute. Unfortunately for them, the Explorers are also fouling often too. Johnson puts Christmas on the line for the 1-and-1, and the junior star hits two. Temple is getting whistled for a lot of soft fouls, these aren’t bad calls, but could go either way.

Green makes a backdoor cut, and finishes with a flush. He airballs a three though, and Tyndale swiftly goes in for a baseline layin.

7:28 1st Half: Temple 25, La Salle 17

Barrett scores inside, and then off of a steal, Harris shows off his hops with a nice two-handed dunk.

Tyndale comes back with a three, the teams trade misses from deep and then Christmas takes it to the hoop for a hoop and the harm.

Chris Clark, the smallest player in Boardwalk Hall strips Mekongo Mbala, but the ball goes to Green, who drains a three from the corner. He’s got either eight or 10 of La Salle’s 17 points.

11:26 1st Half: Temple 19, La Salle 9

Christmas gives Harris a little nudge, he falls, and then Christmas hits a three. Green gets a put-back to go for La Salle.

They are trapping Harris when possible, but he dishes to Green for an and-1. The next possession, Green gets trapped in the same place, but gets it to Kimmani Barrett, who spins and then passes to Terrell Williams, who spins twice and scores on an and-1. His twin is out with two fouls, but he can get it done.

La Salle heads to a 1-2-2 zone for one possession, and it forces the Owls into a turnover

Tyndale makes a pass to Christmas on a beautiful backdoor cut to the basket.

15:17 1st Half: Temple 11, La Salle 2

Christmas gets fouled on a three, and Dr. John Giannini is pissed. Christmas only hits one, but his team is up 9-0. Mekongo Mbala misses a three. Nothing is hitting for the Explorers, and when that happens, this team is hard to watch.

After about every player had bricked, Mekongo Mbala scores off of a put-back. Guzman gives the Explorer Entourage nothing to celebrate about by making a real tough Williams is whistled for an offensive foul, and that’s his second.

17:41 1st Half: Temple 8, La Salle 0

Allen gets inside and scores from point blank to score first for Temple, and Tyndale makes it 4-0.

The game starts off scrappy, a couple fouls called on La Salle. Olmos is bleeding after Williams hit him, and Olmos is complaining to the ref about it as he has to go to the bench to get cleaned up. The La Salle fans mock the common Temple chant by cheering “Ole, ole ole, ole!”
The crowd is still a little sparse, but filling out now. It’s pretty loud for how small it is.

_____
La Salle, the 7-seed, knocked off Duquesne last night in an absolute thriller. The Dukes led by three with a minute to go before Darnell Harris nailed a 27-footer to tie it up, and guards Rodney Green and Ruben Guilandeaux hit three free throws to win the game. Second-seeded Temple earned the first-round bye. With an RPI of 61, the Owls need to at least get to the finals in order to make the NCAA Tournament.

In front of me, La Salle is practicing defense, both team and one-the-ball defending. The Temple student section is on this side as well, and after Darnell Harris finishes a drill, a fan yells at him “Harris, you can’t play defense!” (a true statement), then saying that he’s going to be stopped from hitting threes. Harris lets his sense of humor show, amiably saying something back to the fans while grinning.

With two minutes before tipoff, there aren’t too many fans, but the ones that are here are fairly loud.

Starters:

La Salle:
G Darnell Harris
G Rodney Green
F Paul Johnson
F Jerrell Williams
F Yves Mekongo Mbala

Temple:
G Luiz Guzman
G Dionte Christmas
G Mark Tyndale
F Lavoy Allen
C Sergio Olmos

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 6:18 pm and is filed under City, Game Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.