Lavoy Allen's Breakout Game - St. Bonaventure's 2009 visit to Liacouras

Don't know that I've ever seen this before by a Temple player. But I sure do hope that I'll see more. Lavoy Allen had a double-double in the FIRST half. 13 points and 14 (yes, you read correctly) rebounds. He went on to nab 18 rebounds for the game, setting a Liacouras Center record.
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The second largest crowd of the season. Not certain what was the draw. Surely, it was not Temple's opponent, St. Bonaventure, whose record has been just good enough to earn a spot in the bottom half of the Atlantic 10. By the way, there are probably others, but the Bonnies are the only school I 'm aware of (other than the obvious one) that features brown in its uniforms. So perhaps the crowd was attracted by the birthday celebration (for Hooter, the Temple Owl). His birthday brings out other mascots from throughout the region (including the Philly Phanatic in other years, but not this one). Like college nicknames, I thought I knew mascots, but the only ones I recognized were the Penn Quaker and the Camden Rivershark. I'm not counting the Trenton Thunder mascot because he(she?) had the word Thunder emblazoned across the front of the costume, and beyond that I couldn't make out what I was looking at. There was a lame stunt during one of the time outs in which a "gift from Phil Martelli" was brought out onto the floor - out of the box emerged - what else, the Hawk (and not the real hawk, since St. Joe's had a game at the Palestra at the same time). Of course, the Hawk was immediately confronted by the Owl , a scuffle ensued and the Owl lost his head. He wasn't seen again.
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While on the subject of heads, the Owls ran a promotion featuring a Dionte Christmas bobblehead. Perhaps that was the attraction that drew more than 7000 fans - we arrived shortly before tipoff and were shut out of our Christmas bobblehead. Al Shrier will have to stand alone on the bookshelf in my office. Maybe the bobblehead went to Dionte's head. He made only 4 out of 15 shots, in the process taking several ill-advised shots that were easily in NBA three-point range. Christmas scored 18 points to maintain his conference scoring lead (he's on track to become the first player to lead the Atlantic 10 in scoring for three seasons) but he'll have to regain his shooting stroke if the Owls are to play well into March. Christmas made one of his three-pointers with 16 minutes remaining in the game to put the Owls up by 17. It was the last Temple score for the next five minutes, during which St. Bonaventure cut the deficit down to 8, and at the same time put our departure plans on hold.
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The Owls were sloppy handling the ball. More turnovers than assists. Enough said.
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The bookmakers were on the mark, again. Temple was favored by 16 points. With four minutes left in the game, the Owls were ahead by 16.
Had their final shot of the game gone in, the winning margin would have been...16.
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Temple now has a 9-3 record in the A-10 and is tied for first in the conference with Xavier and Dayton. The Owls travel to Dayton next Saturday for a game that very likely could determine the top seed in the conference tournament. I'm told the game will be shown on Comcast Sports Network.
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Watching Juan Fernandez play invariably draws comparisons to Juan Ignacio Sánchez, better known to Philadelphians as Pepe. In the "where is he now" category, Pepe is 32 years old and playing with Real Madrid in the Spanish League. He's getting about 20 minutes per game, and as you might expect, not scoring very much but continues to be a playmaker (he averages more assists than points per game). Once again, Fernandez showed flashes of brilliance, bringing oohs and aahs from the crowd as well as heaping doses of optimism for the next four years.
Perhaps the Temple soccer coach could pick up some recruiting tips from Fran Dunphy. Temple's hoops roster includes four internationals (Olmos, Fernandez, Michael Eric (from Nigeria) and Craig Williams (from Virgin Islands).
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For the first time in years, I parked in the Liacouras Center garage. It was raw and raining at 2pm, for those of you wondering what madness had overcome me. We stayed to the final buzzer. We were out of the lot in about 15 minutes, although it sure seemed longer while we were stationary on the third level. It set back our post-game plans just a little bit. Wanting to try a new (to us) spot, we ventured to Liberties restaurant in Northern Liberties, where a large group of middle-aged men (who from their looks were either police officers or members of an Irish sporting club) had taken over the establishment. Up the street we went to Standard Tap, where we were told the kitchen wouldn't be serving for another 30 minutes. (These 2pm tipoffs leave those looking for a meal in a predicament). Wound up at North on Third, where, as in seasons past, the service, food, and ambience were first-rate. It's at the corner of 3rd and Brown Sts.