Temple pulls away from La Salle at the Palestra

Forget the records and one team's overwhelming depth advantage. This was the Big Five, where little is easy and everything is intense.

Bringing back memories of the Big Five's heyday, Temple defeated La Salle, 62-49, in the opener of a doubleheader before an animated crowd at the packed Palestra.

A depleted La Salle team fought until Temple finally pulled away late. La Salle trailed by 54-47 with under four minutes left, but an 8-0 Temple run finally put the persistent Explorers away.

Temple is now 10-7 overall and 2-1 in the Big Five, and the Owls are playing their best basketball of the season. They have won four of their last five, with the exception a 67-65 heartbreaker at Memphis.

Now Temple will prepare for Saturday's game at the Liacouras Center against the last remaining unbeaten team in Division I, Larry Brown's SMU Mustangs.

Josh Brown and Quenton DeCosey led Temple with 12 points each. Tony Washington had 16 points and 13 rebounds for La Salle while teammate Cleon Roberts added 16 points.

It was Josh Brown's defense that was most impressive for the Owls. The 6-foot-3 junior guarded La Salle's 6-5 scoring machine, Jordan Price, who was limited to 4-for-21 shooting and 1-of-8 from three-point range. Entering the game averaging 21.9 points, Price was limited to 11.

"It was a collective effort from my team," said Brown, who also had four assists and no turnovers in 38 minutes. ". . . I was on him and made sure I contested every shot."

Washington, a 6-10 sophomore, gave La Salle an inside presence. He hit all seven of his field goal attempts.

"To get a big guy who can play at this level as a sophomore and be this productive against this level of competition on the big stage, it is just tremendous," La Salle coach John Giannini said.

La Salle was without Rohan Brown (knee) and Yevgen Sakhniuk (sickness), who have not appeared in a game since Dec. 22 against Miami.

Because of the Explorer's lack of depth, four starters played all 40 minutes.

La Salle (5-11, 0-3) cut the Temple lead to 33-32 early in the second half, but the Owls went on an 8-0 run to gain some breathing room. Still, Temple wasn't able to pull away from the Explorers until their second 8-0 run, a testament to the fight showed by La Salle.

"John has done a really good job making sure his team is competitive, and I applaud him for that," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said of Giannini.

The Owls also received a major boost from 6-6 freshman guard Trey Lowe, who made his second start and scored all eight of his points in the first half.

For Lowe, his first Palestra appearance was quite an experience. Adding to the atmosphere, many past stars were honored during timeouts, commemorating the 60th year of the Big Five.

"It was exciting to see so many legends here," Lowe said. "It was an honor to play in a setting like this."

mnarducci@phillynews.com

@sjnard