What a great night for Temple, Philly basketball, and Fran Dunphy. The mayor joined in with this tweet:
@Michael_Nutter:
Congratulations #TempleU Owls on a HUGE win tonight! We're all so proud of you.
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Hollis-Jefferson contributed a season high 17 points on seven-of-10 shooting while grabbing six rebounds. Lee, a freshman, had his best game as an Owl, scoring 11 points, pulling down a team-high seven rebounds and rejecting a game-high three shots.
The duo led the Cherry and White to an improbable 32-29 rebound advantage.
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For
the fourth consecutive season, Temple has defeated a top 10 team. As one tweet put it, #TUMBB=giantkillers.
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Temple fan and Chronicowls contributor Scott Matlack said before the game that the Owls would prevail if they shot well. And that they did, 56% from the field, and 50% from beyond the three-point arc. Their best shooting performance thus far in the season. It is the highest single-game field goal percentage for Temple in nearly two years. Only an uncharacteristically high number of turnovers (17) kept the Owls from closing out the Blue Devils earlier than they did.
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A Hollis-Jefferson jumper with 10:45 left in the first half gave Temple the lead. Duke never led in the game again.
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The Wells Fargo Center hosted the third-largest crowd for a college basketball game in its history. And while there were plenty of blue shirts in the crowd, the turnout of Temple fans, including the student body, was most impressive. In case you were wondering, the largest college basketball crowd at Wells Fargo was in 2006 when 20,859 fans saw Villanova knock off #1 ranked Connecticut.
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Here are the Temple students rushing the court:
Here is the lucky Temple scarf, worn by Chronicowls blogger. Their purchase supports the Owls soccer team.Look for us at the Liacouras Center this Saturday - the scarves are available for purchase.
While Temple's win was the evening's highlight, it was quite the night for other Philly schools, as Penn, St. Joe's, LaSalle (impressive win over Xavier) and Drexel all emerged as victors.
And, here, let ESPN recap the Temple win for us.