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BRONX, N.Y. - Temple continued its season-ending slide with an 80-73 loss to Fordham at Rose Hill Gymnasium yesterday.
With five losses in their last six games, the Owls won't be carrying any momentum into this week's Atlantic Ten tournament in Atlantic City. At least they have history on their side.
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Last year, the Owls lost four of their last five regular-season games, including the finale against Fordham. They proceeded to win a pair of tournament games before losing to St. Joseph's in the semifinals.
Coach Fran Dunphy's team will be hard-pressed to repeat that feat unless a lot of pieces fall into place over the next three days.
"We know we just can't get any worse right now," junior guard Mark Tyndale said after the loss to the Rams.
The Owls finished the regular season with a record of 12-17, 6-10 in the A-10.
Dunphy has a number of issues to address. Problem No. 1 is that the Owls aren't shooting well these days. They missed 14 of their first 17 field goal attempts yesterday.
The good news against the Rams was that sophomore guard Dionte Christmas regained his form. Christmas, the leading scorer in the A-10, had connected on just 20 of 70 shots in his previous five games.
Against Fordham, Christmas was 8 of 22 from the floor and hit 6 of 15 three-pointers and 4 of 4 free throws for 26 points.
But even with Christmas hitting, the Owls were unable to keep pace with the Rams (17-11, 10-6), who got big numbers from both halves of their terrific inside-outside tandem of Bryant Dunston (20 points, 13 rebounds) and Marcus Stout (27 points).
That leads to the second issue facing Dunphy, Temple's defense, which hasn't been particularly effective all season.
For the third straight game, Dunphy started a bigger lineup, with 7-foot center Sergio Olmos replacing 6-4 point guard Semaj Inge. The result was an uglier game but maybe one that served a purpose.
The score was tied, 32-32, at the half, despite the fact that the Owls were shooting 33 percent from the floor.
Inge and backup point guard Chris Clark have struggled for the last few weeks and are seeing diminished minutes. That's another issue for Dunphy and the Owls to work through.
In the meantime, Dustin Salisbery has taken over as the offensive set-up man. He labored in that role against the Rams, shooting 4 of 16 from the field.
A-10 Men's Tourney
All games at Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City.
WEDNESDAY
Game 1: (8) Dayton vs.
(9) Charlotte, noon.
Game 2: (5) Fordham vs. (12) Richmond, 2:30 p.m.
Game 3: (7) St. Louis vs. (10) Duquesne, 6:30 p.m.
Game 4: (6) St. Joseph's vs. (11) Temple, 9 p.m.
THURSDAY
(1) Xavier vs. Winner Game 1, noon.
