A huge weight was lifted off of Mark Tyndale’s shoulders Sunday night.
In January, the 6-foot-5 senior guard missed the front end of a crucial one-and-one free throw attempt and had a potential game-winning lay-up blocked – albeit, controversially – at the buzzer by Saint Joseph’s junior center Ahmad Nivens and the Hawks beat Temple, 68-67.
The burden of that loss stayed with Tyndale. Until last night.
Tyndale scored a game-winning layup with 22.3 seconds left to lead Temple to a come-from-behind 57-56 victory over St. Joe’s in front of a sold out crowd of 8,722 at the Palestra. The Owls rallied from a 14-point second half defecit to move into second place in the competitive Atlantic Ten Conference standings.
St. Joe’s was the sixth A-10 team to push the Owls to a game that was decided by two points or less. Temple is 3-3 in those contests this season.
Tyndale finished with a team-high 15 points and eight rebounds, while junior Dionte Christmas was held to just 10 points. Tyndale received help from an unlikely scoring partner in junior guard Semaj Inge, who notched 10 points off the bench and held little back about his feelings toward St. Joe’s in the press conference:
“Me personally, I just don’t like St. Joe’s … I just don’t like those guys.”
Talk about animosity … Maybe they could play this song over the loud speakers before the next Temple-St. Joe’s game. It couldn’t hurt … Could it?
The Owls will host Duquesne at the Liacouras Center Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Hit the “Keep reading” link at the bottom of this post for more pictures, sports fans.
Read TTN reporter John Kopp’s game story: “Men’s basketball team tops St. Joe’s in a thriller”
Also read: “By the bucket”
(Photos by TTN photographers Kevin Cook and Ron Davis. Headshot of Tyndale courtesy of Owlsports.com)
