The best Big 5 matchup of the season wasn’t even played in Philadelphia.

The men’s basketball team held on for a victory over their intra-city rival, St. Joseph’s, 69-64, in the Atlantic 10 championship game Saturday night, punching their ticket for the 2008 NCAA tournament.

Junior Dionte Christmas, held in check for most of the tournament, exploded for 22 points in the victory. In addition to the guaranteed tournament bid, the win gives Temple a 3-2 edge in the season series. For more on the teams’ rivalry, check out John Kopp’s column from yesterday.

Stay tuned to temple-news.com and broadandcecil.com for more on the A-10 championship, and all your Owls NCAA coverage.

And so it’s come to this.

Big 5-rivals, Temple and Saint Joseph’s, will vie for the Atlantic Ten Conference Championship at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. tonight at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN.

During the regular season, visiting St. Joe’s won the first round, beating the Owls by a point at the Liacouras Center.

Temple countered by defeating the Hawks by a point at the Palestra in the second meeting.

This time, the winner will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

It’s all on the line.

Tonight.

Check out Temple-News.com for complete coverage of the Temple-St. Joe’s game after the final buzzer sounds tonight. Read all of TTN’s A-10 Men’s Tournament coverage here.

Also check out Broad & Cecil for audio and a photo slideshow that – hopefully – will be up and ready for consumption by tomorrow morning.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Date’s over, kids. Was it good for you?

Ah-hem, Temple beat Charlotte, 60-45, to move onto the Atlantic Ten Conference Championship game against St. Joe’s at Boardwalk Hall Saturday at 6 p.m.

Read TTN’s game story: “Round three”

Read TTN’s sidebar: “Rivalry reaches its highest level”

And read the rest of TTN’s A-10 Men’s Tournament coverage, here.

Check out Temple-News.com and Broad & Cecil tomorrow for coverage of the title bout.

(Photo courtesy of TTN photographer Kevin Cook.)

Tonight, you can do something that I haven’t successfully done in more than 20 years … Make a date!

Your sweet rendezvous will be with the Temple men’s basketball team, who will take on Charlotte in the semifinals of the Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament.

The game will be broadcast live at 9 p.m. on CN8 (which allows you to stream video from its site, so you can watch the game online), so splash on some cologne/perfume and mind your P’s and Q’s because, tonight, you might be in for some (good, clean) action!

To refersh your memory, the Owls beat La Salle and Charlotte rallied back to defeat Massachusetts last night to reach the this stage of the tourney, which is being held in the cool digs of Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

On the other side of the bracket, Xavier will play St. Joe’s in the first of the two semifinal games.

Check out Temple-News.com and Broad & Cecil later tonight – in the wee hours of the night – for more coverage of the Temple-Charlotte game. Then afterwards let us know all the juicy details of how it went, girlfriend!

For all of TTN’s A-10 Men’s Tournament coverage, click here.

(Photo courtesy of TTN archives)

Sorry, kids. In a rush. No time for snarkiness (Is that a word? … No time! No time!) …

The men’s basketball team beat La Salle, 84-75, Thursday night to move on to the Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament semifinals.

The Owls will play Charlotte at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. tomorrow at 9 p.m.

Read the game story: “Clark to the rescue”

The sidebar: “Turnovers spoil Tyndale’s double-double”

And read everything else from TTN on the A-10 Men’s Basketball Tournament here.

More to come later after TTN returns to Philly in about 2-3 hours …

After Dawn Staley’s crew came up short in their quest for a fourth Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament championship Monday, the second-seeded men’s basketball team will begin their A-10 journey tonight with a quarterfinal match-up against No. 7 La Salle.

The Explorers, who beat Duquesne in their first round tango last night, were smashed by visiting Temple only five days ago, to the tune of 85-66.

Along with the five other remaining teams (Top-seeded Xavier won earlier this afternoon and No. 5 Saint Joseph’s essentially has all but finished off No. 4 Richmond), Temple will be vying for the A-10 Championship and an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Even the experts aren’t sure of how many at-large bids the A-10 will receive, so winning the tourney may be the only way the Owls can guarantee themselves a chance to Dance.

Check out The Temple News Web site later tonight for complete coverage of the La Salle-Temple game.

In the meantime, read: “Christmas runs through March,” “A significant leap,” and “Sizing up the field” 

Also read TTN reporter Jeff Appelblatt’s column on the women’s basketball team: “A chance for success for as long as Dawn rises” 

Read the rest of TTN’s A-10 Men’s Tournament coverage, here.

(Photo from TTN archives)

Here is audio from the post-game press conferences from Monday night’s Atlantic Ten Conference Championship game between the Temple Owls and the Xavier Musketeers and exclusive interviews with Temple men’s basketball players Dionte Christmas, Mark Tyndale and Semaj Inge.

The Musketeers beat Temple, 47-42, to win their second consecutive A-10 title.

All audio courtesy of TTN reporter Jeff Appelblatt.

Temple coach Dawn Staley:
[audio:http://www.musicwebtown.com/tmack85ive/playlists/177705/1404123.mp3]

Temple seniors Lady Comfort and Ashley Morris:
[audio:http://www.musicwebtown.com/tmack85ive/playlists/177705/1404126.mp3]

Xavier coach Kevin McGuff:
[audio:http://www.musicwebtown.com/tmack85ive/playlists/177705/1404125.mp3]

Xavier’s Amber Harris and Ta’Shia Phillips:
[audio:http://www.musicwebtown.com/tmack85ive/playlists/177705/1404127.mp3]

Hear what the fellas had to say after the jump. Continue reading →

[flickr temple.news 72157604095554615]

The Temple women’s basketball team failed to bring home a fifth Atlantic Ten Conference Championship, losing to Xavier, 47-42, in the A-10 Tournament title game Monday night.

Courtesy of TTN photographer Ron Davis, here are photos from the Owls A-10 Tournament experience.

Read TTN reporter Todd Orodenker’s game story: “‘REPO Halted’” and TTN reporter Jeff Appelblatt’s story: “Seniors can’t help Owls win A-10 title.”

For more A-10 Women’s Tournament coverage, click here.

Ashley Morris and the rest of the Temple women’s basketball team won’t get to hold this trophy this season.

The Owls lost the Atlantic Ten Conference Championship to Xavier, 47-42, Monday night at the Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse on Saint Joseph’s campus.

This is the first time the Owls have lost in the A-10 title game. They are now 4-1 in A-10 Championship appearances.

Read TTN reporter Todd Orodenker’s game story: “‘REPO’ halted” and TTN reporter Jeff Appelblatt’s story: “Seniors can’t help Owls win A-10 title”

UPDATE: As of 1:13 a.m., TTN is still hard at work on bringing you a PHOTO SLIDESHOW and an AUDIO PRESENTATION. Expect to see those beautiful things in the morning (Unless you’re a night owl, who’ll be up at around 4 or 5 in the morning, when we’ll probably finally get all of this done … Don’t be like us, kids).

Until then, to hold you over, read the live blogs (first half and second half) from earlier today and then feel free to leave comments on how much I suck.

For all of TTN’s A-10 Women’s Tournament stories, click here.

(Photo courtesy of TTN photographer Ron Davis.)

And here we are heading into the second half, Sesame Street fans!!! Wooo! I’m glad that you’re spending your Spring Break, reading my semi-professional live blog. Just so you’re sure, you can’t get these precious moments back.

Oh, by the way, that’s a picture of a green bucket on the Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse floor after the roof leaked during Saturday’s (Purple) rainfest. There is a green bucket in my house, too … Wait, that’s a lie. I don’t have a green bucket … or a house.

… Let’s delve into the second half after the jump.

Continue reading →