Atlantic 10 Tourney -- St. Joe's 66, Temple 62 FINAL

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Coming to you live from the Atlantic 10 Tournament in AC, where first-round action just started this afternoon.

La Salle's 3-13 record put it in last place in the conference, one in which the bottom two don't make the conference tournament. Later on, (6) Saint Joseph's takes on (11) Temple for the third time this season. The first two meetings were each close at the beginning, but the Hawks pulled away both times in the second half.

(6) St. Joe's 66 (11) Temple 62 FINAL

Christmas gets an open look at a three, but he's just off, and St. Joe's gets the board.

Calathes hits two more free throws.

Tyndale gets a quick two with 6.5 to go, but it's about over down by three at the line the other way.

Although ... Carter misses his first, but makes the second.

Salibery dunks it with 3.5 to go off off some great cross-court passes, and the lead is two as Govens goes to the line.

He's all ice water -- the two are all nylon, and the Hawks are through to round two.

(6) St. Joe's 61 (11) Temple 58 0:22.5 2nd Half

After breaking the press, St. Joe's gets it to Calathes, who gets fouled. He hits the first, another timeout is called, and he makes the second.

(6) St. Joe's 59 (11) Temple 58 0:34 2nd Half

Carter's all net on the two free-bees, and finally, the Hawks take a one-point lead.

After working the ball around for a while, Tyndale airballs a jumper, and St. Joe's gets the board and calls timeout.

(6) St. Joe's 57 (11) Temple 58 1:05 2nd Half

Nivins grabs his own miss and puts it back to cut it to one.
Then after a Tyndale miss, Williamson gets an offensive rebound and hits one to tie it up. The A-10 gods really don't want the Hawks to ever take the lead. They still haven't had one, outside the very beginning, yet.

(6) St. Joe's 54 (11) Temple 56 2:53 2nd Half

Govens hits Nivins in the transition for a nice alley-oop layup and it's a one-possession game.

After a call their way, a Hawks fan forgives the official, "you're ok now." Christmas -- who torched Penn in the loss at the Palestra earlier this year -- has been quiet so far, and misses a three off the back iron. Tyndale hits a layup, though to keep the lead at five.
Carter nails a three to cut it to two.

(6) St. Joe's 49 (11) Temple 54 7:51 2nd Half

D.J Rivera hits Ferguson on a sweet behind-the-back pass.
Calathes seemingly makes it 54-51, but the official determines that Nivins -- streaking toward the basket for a putback -- grazed the net, so it's a goal-tending call and going the other way.

(6) St. Joe's 47 (11) Temple 50 9:26 2nd Half

Nivins gets doubled-down on, but gets fouled and makes two.
Salisbery hits a wide-open three from the corner, and Temple's lead is up to nine. The Hawks have got to contest these threes. Temple is a tough team to defend when it can hit the open shots.

Tyndale and Nivins collide for a rebound, and the foul is on Tyndale. They've both been beasts this game.

Temple has missed a few threes, and the Hawks are creeping back. Carter exhibits some blow-by speed, and the crowd erupts as Dunphy calls a timeout.

(6) St. Joe's 39 (11) Temple 47 12:14 2nd Half

Salisbery drains a three, but St. Joe's finally goes inside to Nivins for a turnaround over Dacons.
Tyndale responds, like he's been doing all game with a tough and-1 with the left hand.

(6) St. Joe's 35 (11) Temple 40 2nd Half

A big block from Olmos -- who started but played only five minutes in the first half -- sparks an "Ole, ole ole ole!" chant from the Owls fans. The Hawks' student section has the last laugh though, as their side ties it up.

Tyndale nails a quick three though, and Brooks follows it up with another. The next possession Jawan Carter (who has been quiet) returns the favor with another from deep.
Olmos scores to make it five, but picks up his fourth foul on a reach-in. Not a smart play, let's see if the Hawks can capitalize by going inside.

Temple has led almost the entire game even though it's been close throughout. There's only been one lead change.

(6) St. Joe's 28 (11) Temple 32 HALFTIME

Tyndale nails a nasty jumper in Calathes' eye. Needless to say the "Pat Calathes" chants of about five minutes ago have long died out.

The big man has a nice dish though to Govens for a three, and it's tied.
But just then, Salisbury finds Dacons wide open under the hoop to take the lead back.

After a free throw, Salisbery decides a one-point lead isn't enough going into the break. With a few ticks left in the first-half, he launches one from 30+ thats strikes all nylon. The senior holds his follow-through for the full effect, and the Temple fans approve.

STATS

Brooks leads the way for the Owls with 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting. It's been a fairly even game so far, each team shooting in the mid-forties. The Hawks have only four turnovers, but are actually getting out-rebounded 18-15. Dacons leads the way with seven boards.

(6) St. Joe's 24 (11) Temple 25 2:51 1st Half

Tyndale keeps up the cushon with a nasty and-1 three from the corner, and completes the four-point play.
The Hawks are now bringing up the pressure on defense with some trapping -- and a nice steral by Govens on Christmas.
A Govens three from the corner cuts the lead to one.

(6) St. Joe's 19 (11) Temple 21 5:53 1st Half

Christmas drops an inbounds pass. He hasn't been a big factor offensively so far.
On the other end, Nivins gets a pass over the fronting defender for an open dunk. Then Calathes -- the 6-foot-10 guard -- hits a long three to cut it to two.

(6) St. Joe's 14 (11) Temple 21 7:09 1st Half

The crowd opposite the benches looks to be about 2/3 full, while the other half is much more sparse. In all the attendence looks to be about triple that of the last game.

Dacons gets a layup off of an offensive rebound and Brooks hits another long jumper to boost the Temple lead to seven.
Tyndale then goes hard into the lane and gets rejected by Nivins.

(6) St. Joe's 10 (11) Temple 14 10:51 1st Half

Both teams are in the man defense, and as a result there have been a good amount of close-in shots given up. But Temple starts to heat up from three, as Ryan Brooks nails a three to take the lead.

The Owls are fronting the nig men in the post and bothering them enough so that they haven only mildly taken advantage of their size. Temple's pressure on the perimeter has forced a lot of early turnovers. If Temple can keep this a guards' game it will most definitely be to its advantage.

(6) St. Joe's 7 (11) Temple 7 14:49 1st Half

Dunphy sends out the 7-foot Olmos in the starting lineup, that extra possession at the tip helps.

Calathes opens up the scoring for the Hawks after a few bricks from each side. Nivins follows it up by taking a tough charge from Tyndale.
Nivins then uses his size advantage to rock the rim with a dunk.

Starters:
Temple
G Mark Tyndale
G Dionte Christmas
G Dustin Salisbury
F Dion Dacons
C Sergio Olmos

St. Joe's
G Garrett Williamson
G Darrin Govens
F Pat Calathes
C Ahmad Nivins
F Rob Ferguson

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(7) Saint Louis vs. (10) Duquesne

The Dukes had a lead, but a 19-4 run by the Billikens took it right back. From there it's been back-and-forth, and with 2:31 Duquesne ties it up at 76.

Saint Louis goes up by two, 78-76, and the Dukes have 0:37.7 left to make something happen. Point guard Reggie Jackson drives and kicks to freshman swingman Robert Mitchell, who turns it over.

But they'll get one more shot, as Ian Vouyoukas misses the front end of the 1-and-1.

Mitchell tries an off-balance floater and misses, but another freshman, Scott Grote gets the offensive rebound, and gets fouled. He drains the first free-throw, but bricks the second off of the back iron. Ouch. There are still 6.5 seconds to go, so they should still have a shot at the win or tie. 78-77 SLU, :06.5

Vouyoukas misses another front end of a 1-and-1, and the Dukes get the rebound. Sophomore guard Aaron Jackson takes the pass on the perimeter, but gets stripped on the way up by Kevin Lisch, and that's your ballgame. 78-77 SLU