Dick Jerardi: College Basketball Wrap
Dick Jerardi: College Basketball Wrap
AROUND THE CITY
SHOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGH
Associated Press
UMass' Tony Gaffney (right) swats away shot by Temple's Semaj Inge.
If you told Temple coach Fran Dunphy before the game at Massachusetts that his team would score 75 points, he would have taken it. In fact, if you told him the Owls would score 75 points in every game the rest of the season, he would take it right now. That is going to be enough almost all of the time.
It was not enough at the Mullins Center as the Owls lost, 79-75. Temple (9-7, 1-1 Atlantic 10) just ran into a home team starting to find itself under new coach Derek Kellogg.
THE NUMBERS
The Owls had just six turnovers; they blocked six shots and got 26 points and nine rebounds from Dionte Christmas and 17 points from Ryan Brooks.
UMass (7-9, 2-1) shot 48.2 percent, 11-for-23 from the arc and had 22 assists on 27 field goals.
THE HOT DRAGONS
Anybody who saw Drexel early in the season could not have predicted this. Suddenly, the Dragons are a factor every time, and a winner on many nights.
Drexel (8-8, 4-3 Colonial Athletic Association) went to North Carolina-Wilmington and dominated, 76-52.
The gang that couldn't shoot straight was 16-for-16 from the free throw line, after making their last 16 foul shots at Hofstra. If that sounds like a school-record 32 straight, it is. The 1987-88 team made 31 in a row.
Leon Spencer, who scored 36 points in the Dragons' first 13 games, had 21, all in the second half after going for 12 and 12 in the prior two games.
UNC Wilmington (4-15, 1-6) obviously is not very good, but, on its best night, Drexel does not crush teams. But they just did.
The Dragons held Hofstra to 29.9 percent shooting on Wednesday. UNCW shot just 28.6 percent, 12.9 percent (4-for-31) in the second half. Meanwhile, the Dragons shot 61.5 percent in the second half and a season-best 51.9 percent for the game.
The Dragons play their next three games at home, including a rivalry game with Delaware tomorrow night. Fear the Dragons.
PENN NOT THE ONE
New Jersey Institute of Technology has one big problem - beyond the fact that it has not won in 2 years and has almost no talent. Nobody wants to be the team that ends the NJIT losing streak.
That streak now stands at 51 after Penn ventured to Newark and won, 59-40. This will not be a tape they put in a time capsule and bury under the Palestra.
The classic was witnessed by an overflow crowd of 419. NJIT (0-18) shot 31.4 percent. Penn (4-8) got 15 from Brennan Votel and got out of town knowing it won't be the answer to a trivia question.
ACROSS THE COUNTRY
