The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: A-10 Semi Final, Temple vs. Xavier
Before I get into it, and in effort to make full disclosure, I am a proud graduate of both Temple (Comp Sci, ’92) and Xavier(M.Ed., ’95), however, while I hope the best for X, I bleed Cherry and White that said . . .
The Good: This was a heavyweight championship fight between two of the A-10 elite. The truth is the top 5 teams
in the A-10 (Temple, X, Dayton, Duquesne, URI) this season are about equal, and I believe all of these teams, with the exception of X, are VERY underated. However, tonight was the Owl night, as they did it with their best defensive game of the season, holding Xavier to season lows in points, 53, and shooting percentage, 34.5%. Temple also struggle to make a shot until late in the game (X plays tremendous defense), but senior Dionte Christmas showed what a tremendous play he is, making two long threes and hitting a foul shot to seal the win. It would have been very easy for Dionte to pack it given his struggles for the first 50 plus minutes of basketball he had played over the first two days of the tournament, but instead he wanted the ball as all great players do, and he delivered.
The Bad: It’s really hard to find anything bad about this game. As I said, this was a great basketball game between two really good teams.
The Ugly: Despite this win, the Owls could still be left out of the NCAA tournament if they don’t get the automatic bid by winning tomorrow. Unfortunately, I don’t see the A-10 getting 4 teams in, so if Duquesne wins tonight the winner of tomorrow game would be in and the looser in the NIT. That said, let’s hope the Owls take care of business in what should be a very partisan Temple arena tomorrow night.
GO OWLS!!!
We are proud to support the following charities:
