Feb. 15, 2009
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PITTSBURGH - Freshman Juan Fernandez led four Temple players in double figures with 19 points to lead the Owls to a 78-73 win over Duquesne at the Palumbo Center.
With the loss, the Dukes (15-9, 6-5) dropped into a sixth place tie with Saint Louis in the Atlantic 10. Temple, 15-9 overall, moved into a third place tie with Saint Joseph's at 7-3.
Aaron Jackson had game highs in points (21), rebounds (9) and assists (5) for Duquesne. Damian Saunders added 13 points, three steals and two blocks and Bill Clark finished with 12 points for the Dukes who have dropped two in a row.
Temple shot 49.1 percent, while Duquesne, which went 5-of-26 from the 3-point arc, finished at 40.3 percent.
Dionte Christmas, who came into the game as the leading scorer in the Atlantic 10, had 15 points on 4-of-15 shooting for Temple. Semaj Inge and Ryan Brooks added 11 points each for the Owls.
"I thought we did a good job on Christmas," said Duquesne head coach Ron Everhart. "They got a lot of production out of the other two spots [Brooks and Fernandez]. I was disappointed in our defensive effort down the stretch. Their seniors showed a lot of maturity. That was the difference in the game."
Duquesne took its first lead on a Damian Saunders dunk at the 15:16 mark of the first half and held it until Christmas hit a 3-pointer less than 30 seconds into the second half that gave the Owls a 42-40 lead. Christmas added a jumper before the Dukes answered with a 9-0 run.
There were four ties and seven lead changes before Fernandez hit a jumper followed by a Brooks 3-pointer to put Temple up 62-58. DU cut it to one on Clark's lone 3-pointer before Lavoy Allen scored five unanswered points to make it 67-61. Christmas then went to work, getting to the line twice and hitting 2-of-4 free throws to put Temple up eight with 3:52 to go.
Duquesne cut it to four three times, the last of which came on a Jackson three-point play with 17 seconds left, but could get no closer as Temple, which missed eight free throws in the final 40 seconds of its 61-59 win over Saint Joseph's on Wednesday, hit 4-of-4 from the line down the stretch for the final margin.
Fernandez finished 7-of-9 from the field with just one turnover in 31 minutes.
"We did some good things against their zone," said Everhart. "We just couldn't make shots. We've got to do a better job of shooting the basketball and hitting open jump shots."
Duquesne is idle until next Sunday's 2:00 p.m. game at La Salle.
NOTES
• Bill Clark (1-of-5) and Eric Evans (1-of-7) were a combined 2-of-12 from the 3-point arc. Ryan Brooks (3-of-4) and Juan Fernandez (2-of-4) went 5-of-8. Overall, Temple went 7-of-21 from the arc to 5-of-26 for Duquesne.
• There were a total of five ties and nine lead changes in the game. Duquesne's last lead came at 8:23 of the second half (58-57 on a Melquan Bolding jumper).
