Temple tops St. Joe's in OT at the Palestra

St. Joe's played to a full Palestra crowd for the second time this week last night against Temple. The crowd roared through the Palestra with 0:00 left on the clock last night as both teams went back to their benches in preparation for overtime. With St. Joe's bench on the west end and Temple's on the other, the Quakers found themselves left out in this Philadelphia inner city game. A less emphatic mood settled over the crowd, dominated by St. Joe's supporters, at the final buzzer as the Owls (12-4, 5-1 Atlantic 10) defeated the Hawks (7-9, 1-6) 68-62. It was the first meeting of the year between the two squads who both defeated the Quakers this year. Temple defeated Penn 67-58, while St. Joe's barely escaped with a 55-57 victory this past Saturday. The Palestra was the site of the scheduled St. Joe's home game to allow the 8,126 fans to watch. The Hawks' Alumni Field House only seats 3,200 comfortably. "I don't consider to be in this building any type of disadvantage," St. Joe's coach Phil Martelli said. "I think it is a game that Philadelphia people want to see. I think the Philadelphia people love this building." As a stage for the rest of the city, the Palestra has always drawn praises for its unique ambience. "Tonight it was the same Palestra as I have always seen it," Temple coach John Chaney said. "It was alive, a frenzy was out there and it is just one of the great places, other than the Apollo, to play the game." Last night the Palestra took center stage. Although the walls, ceiling and floor were bannered with Pennsylvania logos, neither side felt uncomfortable. Instead of two visiting teams, the fans made it seem as if it was a battle of two home teams The climax in the game came when St. Joe's Duval Simmonds lofted up a five-foot field goal with less than a second left in regulation to leave a pair of 55s showing on the scoreboard. The shot finished the Hawks comeback from a 51-41 deficit with 6:58 left in the game. Simmonds finished the game as the Hawks leading scorer and rebounder with 16 points and nine rebounds. Simmonds originally found himself in the position to tie the game. While driving down the lane, Simmonds was fouled by Temple's Lamont Barnes, sending him to the charity stripe to shoot two free throws. With the Hawks down by two and only 32.2 seconds left in the game, Simmonds missed both chances. With the heart of St. Joe's still in the game, the Hawks' Harold Rasul tipped the loose ball from Simmonds' second free throw into the hands of teammate Rashid Bey. "Coach told us that Rashid was going to shoot the ball," Simmonds said. "Everyone just ran in and attacked the boards. I tapped it, Harold Rasul tapped it and I just tried to get another tap in before the clock ran out." Temple did not waste time in overtime, outscoring St. Joe's 13-7. Eight out of Temple's 13 came from the foul line, which shot 47.8 percent for the entire game. The difference was rebounding, as St. Joe's was out rebounded 14-3 in the extra period. "In overtime they banged us really hard," Simmonds said. "They attacked the boards hard. I guess they wanted it more than we did." Bey led the Hawks initially, scoring the game's first points with a three-pointer only 30 seconds into it. Four series later the Hawks' point guard hit a field goal to again extend their lead to three. Throughout the entire game the Owls dominated play with their premier zone-defense. In switching from a 2-3 to a 1-3-1 and a 1-2-2, the Owls found the numbers that worked on defense that also limited the Hawks' numbers on offense. Taking over a lead they did not relinquish for the rest of the game with 9:35 left in the first half, the Owls big men had their way inside. Barnes finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds, while his teammate Lynard Stewart ended the game with nine points and 11 rebounds. Temple's ability to establish a lead was compromised by the Hawks' ability to change the movement of the game in their favor. Led by freshman Frank Wilkins, who accounted for six points in the Hawks 12-2 run at the end of the second-half, St. Joe's was able to set the stage for Duval's heroics.