Temple beats St. Joseph's to take A-10 title

By Ray Parrillo

Inquirer Staff Writer

ATLANTIC CITY - The two messages are still on Fran Dunphy's voice mail, the two that were phoned in back in December, when Dunphy's Temple Owls seemed to be laying the groundwork for a forgettable season.

The Temple coach saved them, and not because of the reassuring voices on the other end. Basically, the two callers informed Dunphy that the Owls were a mess, and they used as little diplomacy as possible.

"They talked about how they never saw a Temple team play like that," Dunphy recalled last night. "And I agreed with them. We were down. We were a terrible team. Interestingly enough, I still have them, just to remind me every once in a while that there are things you can do better."

Now, Dunphy can erase those messages if he so cares, soon as he puts down the trophy that goes to the Atlantic Ten Conference champions.

Temple (21-12) completed a remarkable turnabout from the terrible team to which Dunphy referred by knocking off city rival St. Joseph's, 69-64, in front of a lively crowd of 10,116 at Boardwalk Hall.

Early tonight, Temple will watch its name placed on a bracket line for the NCAA tourney for the first time since 2001 after earning the automatic bid. It is the Owls' seventh A-10 championship, tops in the conference.

"I've been a Temple fan all my life," Temple senior Mark Tyndale said. "When I got here, I just wanted to get to the tournament, and that's what I did my senior year. It's going to be great to hear our name called on Selection Sunday. I can't describe the feeling. I'm just so happy and so proud of my teammates."

Despite the loss, St. Joe's (21-12) still appears to have a solid chance to grab an at-large berth, but coach Phil Martelli refused to lobby for it after the Hawks failed to become the 12th team in NCAA history to earn an automatic bid by winning four conference tourney games in four days. St. Joe's has made it to the title game three times in the last four seasons, but has fallen short each time.

This time, the Hawks did it the hard way, knocking off the league's powerhouse, No. 10 Xavier, in the semifinal.

"That [selection] committee is the most informed committee in America," Martelli said. "Our body of work is on their desk, and I pray it's good enough."

Temple's win was its eighth in the last nine games. It was the latest and, certainly, the most important reflection of the turnabout Dunphy sensed the Owls made in the second half of a 74-64 loss to Duke in early January.

In that second half, the Owls escaped embarrassment by holding the Blue Devils scoreless for about seven minutes. Light bulbs went off in their heads. They finally caught on to Dunphy's defensive principles. They are 15-4 since the Duke game.

"We made a run that I think was important for us," said Dunphy, who inherited a program that had slipped under Hall of Fame coach John Chaney. "Somehow, some way, I just think the kids picked the defensive scheme up. They got a basket. They got another basket, and all of a sudden we thought maybe we can be pretty good."

For the Owls last night, the baskets weren't coming from anyone except Dionte Christmas during a first half mostly controlled by the Hawks. Christmas, voted by the media as the tourney's most outstanding player, kept St. Joe's from running away by draining three of his five three-point baskets en route to 22 points. A three-pointer by Temple's Chris Clark cut St. Joe's lead to 32-25 at the break.

Then the Owls turned the game in their favor after halftime. Lavoy Allen energized them with a dunk, and Temple was off on a 16-2 run. They eventually built their lead to nine points. Ryan Brooks made several big baskets and finished with 15 points.

Twice, the Hawks came within three, and they were still in it when Temple had a 63-59 lead with under two minutes to go.

But Christmas stripped Pat Calathes of the ball with under a minute remaining. And Calathes, superb the first three games but persistently hounded by Tyndale and Christmas, was short on a three-point attempt with 30 seconds to go.

Dunphy made a halftime adjustment, putting Tyndale in command of the offense from the point. Although Tyndale shot only 1-for-8, he had a major influence on the game with his defense, nine rebounds, seven assists, two steals and zero turnovers. Temple had only four turnovers the second half.

"Mark didn't score that much, but he filled up the stat sheet," Christmas said.

Although they denied it, the Hawks in the second half appeared to be a team worn down by their three-day run to the final. Several of Calathes' jumpers fell short. He was 2 for 10 from three-point distance. Ahmad Nivins, who had 18 points and 10 rebounds, also appeared fatigued from fighting to get open in the lane.

St. Joe's had nine second-half turnovers, and seemed to lose a step during their switches on defense.

"This game, we didn't fatigue," Martelli said. "It was their run at the start of the second half that was the difference in the game."

Contact staff writer Ray Parrillo at 215-854-2743 or rparrillo@phillynews.com.