2008 Woodie Awards
Live Game Log From Atlantic City, Saint Joseph's falls to Temple
Matthew De George '10
Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: News
Stay tuned for our real-time game log live from the Saint Joseph's men's Atlantic 10 Semifinal live from Atlantic City. The most recent updates will appear at the bottom of the page.
Welcome back to Atlantic City (sorry, I exhausted all my "Atlantic City" lines last night, but we'll try to get a few more in today), as Saint Joseph's chases its third Atlantic 10 Tournament Championship against Big 5 rival Temple. The Hawks are here thanks to a 61-53 upset win over Xavier, while the Owls trounced Charlotte 60-45 in the night cap. Tip-off is schedule for just after 6:00 p.m.
Both teams look to be in the NCAA Tournament at the moment, with St. Joe's position being more secure. They both have benefited from the run of bubble teams crashing out early in their conference tournaments and lack of upsets in the ranks of the mid-majors (San Diego's win over Gonzaga to give the West Coast Conference three bids being the exception).
At the start of play today, only three teams who currently are on the outside looking in have a shot (albeit long shots) to steal Tourney berths: Georgia (who has to win a second game today in the SEC semifinals), the winner of Illinois and Minnesota (who would have to beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game), and Akron in the MAC Championship game against favored Kent State. Virginia Tech's near-upset of top-ranked North Carolina may not be enough to punch their Dance ticket.
For SJU to win tonight, they need to keep up the same tough defense, especially on the perimeter, that they used against the Musketeers last night. They were extremely sharp on defensive switches, and were able to use Xavier's screening offense against them by hedging high ball screens and getting favorable matchups on the switches, like Pat Calathes on the much smaller Drew Lavender.
Offensively, the Hawks need to get more out of the backcourt. With Calathes and Rob Ferguson delivering consistent numbers every night in the tournament, it will be up to the other guards, especially Darrin Govens and Tasheed Carr to bring more offensively. The X-factor is bench production. Last night, it came in the form of 21 strong minutes from Arvydas Lidzius, and he will be especially important to counter Temple's strong rebounding efforts of late.
Welcome back to Atlantic City (sorry, I exhausted all my "Atlantic City" lines last night, but we'll try to get a few more in today), as Saint Joseph's chases its third Atlantic 10 Tournament Championship against Big 5 rival Temple. The Hawks are here thanks to a 61-53 upset win over Xavier, while the Owls trounced Charlotte 60-45 in the night cap. Tip-off is schedule for just after 6:00 p.m.
Both teams look to be in the NCAA Tournament at the moment, with St. Joe's position being more secure. They both have benefited from the run of bubble teams crashing out early in their conference tournaments and lack of upsets in the ranks of the mid-majors (San Diego's win over Gonzaga to give the West Coast Conference three bids being the exception).
At the start of play today, only three teams who currently are on the outside looking in have a shot (albeit long shots) to steal Tourney berths: Georgia (who has to win a second game today in the SEC semifinals), the winner of Illinois and Minnesota (who would have to beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game), and Akron in the MAC Championship game against favored Kent State. Virginia Tech's near-upset of top-ranked North Carolina may not be enough to punch their Dance ticket.
For SJU to win tonight, they need to keep up the same tough defense, especially on the perimeter, that they used against the Musketeers last night. They were extremely sharp on defensive switches, and were able to use Xavier's screening offense against them by hedging high ball screens and getting favorable matchups on the switches, like Pat Calathes on the much smaller Drew Lavender.
Offensively, the Hawks need to get more out of the backcourt. With Calathes and Rob Ferguson delivering consistent numbers every night in the tournament, it will be up to the other guards, especially Darrin Govens and Tasheed Carr to bring more offensively. The X-factor is bench production. Last night, it came in the form of 21 strong minutes from Arvydas Lidzius, and he will be especially important to counter Temple's strong rebounding efforts of late.
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