Another game down to the final seconds, and another victory for the Owls.
Below, from the Twittersphere, is a snapshot of the game, and main contributors to the win.
Jake O'Buckets, as he's affectionately referred to by the Cherry Crusade for his shooting prowess, had his first double-double wearing Cherry and White. He had quite a few while playing at Boston University. And, once again, Khalif Wyatt led the Owls in scoring, including clutch foul shooting in the final five minutes.
Cummings' three-pointer just 20 seconds into the game had the Owls faithful off their feet and into their seats, and handed the Owls their only lead of the half. The Owls did not regain the lead until the 15-minute mark of the second half, and sttretched that lead into a comfortable 11(or so we thought) with nearly 10 minutes remaining in the contest. The URI Rams quickly tied the game, making the final eight minutes very tense. Why were we surprised?
The I Believe chant erupted with just a few seconds remaining. Nice story in the Inky this week about the I Believe Guy.
For those unfamiliar,
here's background on this feel-good story.
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At least 2000 fans brought their empty seat disguises yesterday. Along with several thousand youngsters at the Liacouras Center to celebrate Hooter's birthday ( the birthday celebration was a fresh idea several years ago but has now gone stale), the announced attendance topped 9000 (second-largest of the season).
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A rare out-of-conference game, a make-up of a game in December rescheduled due to particularly nasty weather, produced Temple's 20th win of the season, and the top of the Inky front page header, as shown below. And while it may not have been the burst of spring, it surely was a burst of Wyatt, as in Khalif.
Khalif Wyatt had a most ordinary 38 minutes of game, and a most extraordinary final two minutes of game. He tallied 12 points in those final 120 seconds, to turn a 5 point deficit into a five point win, over a stunned Detriot squad, and an equally stunned but ever more gleeful Temple crowd (only
4000-plus of them by the way, yet another crowd that filled fewer than half of the seats in the 10,206 seat arena). This game was also the final game of the Gotham Classic, a December tournament in which Temple emerged the winner by virtue of their wins against Syracuse and Detroit.
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Yesterday, in the city of Brotherly Love, was a day for college basketball junkies. Starting with the Temple game at 2pm, a fan could have watched the Owls victory, stopped after the game to have a bite to eat (at any of the spots mentioned in the Places to Visit Before or After the Game on the far right column of this blog), continued on the Palestra for a 6pm tipoff between Penn and Harvard, left at halftime, walked a few blocks to the Daskalakis Center for the tipoff of Drexel-UNC Wilmington, stayed for the first half, and then headed out to City Line to watch the second half of St. Joe's -Fordham. And, oh yeah, this itinerary did not include LaSalle, which was hosting Duquesne at the same time the Cherry and White were on the floor. Don't know how many Philadelphians took in more than one game, but I do know that more than 23,000 fans were in attendance for those games.
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City Series games, like the Temple-LaSalle contest at Liacouras Center just last week, bring out the best (and worst) of rollouts. LaSalle fans brought out the best banner (IMO) of the season during that game:
Duquesne Wins are Temple Made (Duquesne has one win in the Atlantic Ten this season).
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A whiteout (like the one above, against Xavier last year, in a nationally televised game) is planned for next Sunday's final home against VCU's Rams (go figure, the opponents in Temple's final two home games this season have a ram as their nickname). Disclosure: my first, and only football helmet, as a youngster had the Los Angeles (now St. Louis) Ram as its insignia. Anyway, VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) is in the top #25, and should draw a sellout crowd. Wouldn't you expect that the fans attending the game yesterday would be reminded (informed) by the PA announcer of next Sunday's home and regular season finale, with an enjoinder to buy seats right after this game, at the ticket windows , open for your convenience, in the lobby. Alas, all ticket windows were closed.
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The athletic department should cease promoting, immediately, Temple's entry into the Big East. It now appears very likely that Temple may never play a Big East basketball game. And what's with the Big East member school banners flying prominently in the concourse of Liacouras Center. A bit premature, I'd offer.
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Five consecutive one-point games. We'll never see that again in our lifetimes. That's more one-point games than the Owls have had the previous FOUR YEARS. Surely, lots of drama and tension this year.
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South Florida, Southern Methodist University, Houston, East Carolina, and Central Florida are among the schools Temple will play next season in the to-be-named-later Conference. Other than South Florida (and I've trying to forget that game in the second round of last year's NCAA tournament) the Owls have not faced any of these schools in the last decade. Not exactly rivals, one might say. Makes you want to run right out to get season tickets for next year's campaign, right?
