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Tuesday, Feb. 29 7:00pm ET
Hawks withstand Owls' comeback | |||||
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Marvin O'Connor and the St. Joseph Hawks put some life back in the Big Five -- at the expense of the Temple Owls. O'Connor hit five three-pointers and scored 20 points as St. Joseph's upset Temple (No. 7 ESPN/USA Today, No. 5 AP) 62-59 on Tuesday night at the historic Palestra.
Na'im Crenshaw hit two free throws with 16.7 seconds remaining, giving the Hawks their first victory over Temple since 1995. "We've lost a lot of close games. It's about time we won one, and against the No. 5 team makes it even better," O'Connor said. Temple had a chance to tie, but Mark Karcher missed a 3-pointer from the corner with two seconds left -- a shot that Hawks coach Phil Martelli said seemed to take forever to hit the rim. "It seemed like it was in slow-motion," said Martelli, who finally beat the Owls after 10 straight losses in his five seasons at St. Joseph's. "That was a great Philadelphia series game." Karcher also missed a 3-point attempt with 40 seconds left -- which would have put the Owls up by one -- before Temple was forced to put Crenshaw on the line. "We got the shot we wanted," Owls coach John Chaney said of the final 3-point attempt. "It was probably the only pattern we tried that worked well tonight." Crenshaw and Damian Reid each scored 10 points for St. Joseph's (12-14, 7-8 Atlantic 10), which had lost four in a row. St. Joseph's hadn't beaten such a highly ranked team since downing No. 2 DePaul in 1984. Karcher scored 16 points and Lynn Greer added 11 points for Temple, which saw its 13-game winning streak come to an end. Down 35-30 at the half, Temple pressed full court before falling back into its trademark match-up zone to increase pressure on the Hawks, who made 11 3-pointers in the game. "I've seen their zone before, and sometimes you can get shots from the perimeter. They want you to shoot the 3," O'Connor said. Temple trailed most of the game until drawing even twice in the final eight minutes. The Hawks took their biggest lead at 47-34 on Bill Phillips' 3-pointer from the corner with 13:48 remaining. Karcher, who was 6-of-18 from the field, hit a 3-pointer with 10:30 left to spark a 9-0 run. Greer also added four free throws to tie it at 49 with 8:26 remaining. "We took the biggest punch we could when they tied the score at 49-49. I said, 'Let's go' with five minutes to win the game," Martelli said. O'Connor hit a long 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Hawks ahead 57-51 with 5:40 left. Temple responded with six straight points to tie it at 57 with 3:42 remaining. Tim Brown hit a 3-pointer with just under two minutes left to give the Hawks a 60-57 lead. Karcher's basket with 1:35 left pulled Temple within a point at 60-59. "We've had two or three games that we shot extremely well. This one we had to win with our heads. You can't depend on shooting to get out of trouble," Chaney said. "We have a very talented team, but I don't know if we are smart enough yet." Temple uncharacteristically committed 11 turnovers including three by star guard Pepe Sanchez, against the Hawks' aggressive man-to-man defense. The Owls have beaten the Hawks in 15 of 16 games dating to Feb. 19, 1993, and lead the series 72-49 since the city rivals began playing each other in 1931. | ALSO SEE Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
AUDIO/VIDEO   Temple's desperation 3 at the buzzer is no good.avi: 969 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Marvin O'Conner makes the steal and drives to the hoop.avi: 560 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Frank Wilkins makes the acrobatic layup on the baseline.avi: 973 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   Coach Phil Martelli liked St. Joseph's chances after earning the lead.wav: 146 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 Marvin O'Connor played the game with a "We had nothing to lose" mindset.wav: 80 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 | |||||
