March 5, 2011

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - La Salle had little trouble scoring the basketball against its defensive-minded rival Temple but was not able to stop the Owl offense in a 90-82 loss in the final regular season game for both teams on Saturday at the Liacouras Center. Sophomore Aaric Murray led the Explorers with 17 points and nine rebounds, while junior Earl Pettis added 12 and senior Steve Weingarten had 11 off the bench in the Big 5 contest.

The Blue and Gold earned the tenth seed in next week's Atlantic 10 Tournament and will visit #7 St. Bonaventure on Tuesday at 5 PM in the first round. The game will be televised nationally on CBS College Sports.

Lavoy Allen paced Temple with a career-high 24 points and 11 rebounds, while Khalif Wyatt added 18 off the bench. Ramone Moore had 16 and Juan Fernandez chipped in with 15 points and seven assists.

Only Xavier scored more points (88 on January 22) against the Owls, who are averaging a league-best 61.1 points allowed per game. La Salle reached the 80-point mark for the 14th time this season and for the second straight game. LU also out-shot the hosts by connecting on 55.4% on its shots from the field.

La Salle led by four, 57-53, after Murray's jumper with 15:35 to play. But the Owls went on a 14-4 run over the next four minutes to separate the game and never trailed again. La Salle cut the lead to 84-80 with 2:16 to play on senior Jerrell Williams' lay-up but could not get any closer.

The victory was Temple's 22d straight home win, tying the home winning streak record they set from Feb. 8, 1998 through Dec. 14, 2000.

Freshman Tyreek Duren had two steals to tie the program record for swipes by a freshman (57), which was previously held by Kareem Townes in 1992-93. He also added seven assists moving him past Tabby Cunningham into second place for assists by a freshman. Shawn Smith (1995-96) holds the record with 165.

Temple (24-6, 14-2 A-10, 3-1 Big 5) wrapped up the second seed in the A-10 Tournament and will face the winner of the La Salle-St. Bonaventure contest.

La Salle wraps up the regular season with a 14-17 mark and 6-10 in the Atlantic 10.