Ain’t no player high enough, ain’t no player low enough to help out the men’s basketball team.

The Owls received key contributions from their tall guys (7-0 junior center Sergio Olmos and 6-9 freshman forward Lavoy Allen) and their not-so-tall guy (5-8 senior Chris Clark, who was celebrating his 22nd birthday) in a 93-80 win over George Washington Sunday afternoon at the Liacouras Center.

Clark notched a career-high 17 points, tying his previous career-high with a 16 points in the first half alone. Allen also achieved a career-high with 19-point performance. Olmos added 10 points and three blocks.

The usual suspects, junior guard Dionte Christmas and senior guard Mark Tyndale, combined to score 42 points.

The Owls will (11-9, 4-2 Atlantic Ten Conference) visit Richmond (11-9, 4-3) Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Read TTN reporter Todd Orodenker’s game story: Big men help lead men’s basketball team to victory.

(Photo courtesy of TTN photographer Ron Davis)

For the past four years, the Temple women’s basketball has starred in their own version of Groundhog Day, sans Bill Murray (Although a sequel starring Dawn Staley would almost certainly be a box-office hit).

Every time one of the other four city schools faces Temple, it’s the same result: a win for the Owls.

And the movie just kept on rolling Saturday.

The Owls won their fourth consecutive Big 5 title with a 60-55 win over host La Salle at the Tom Gola Arena. With the win, the Owls secured their 18th consecutive city series victory and became the first school to win four straight Big 5 titles.

Four Owls scored in double-figures, including freshman Shaqwedia Wallace who registered 11 points for the Owls (13-10, 6-1 A-10, 4-0 Big 5).

Temple will host Charlotte (14-8, 5-1) at the Liacouras Center Wednesday at noon in it’s annual the Dawn Staley School Day. Along with Xavier and George Washington, the Owls and Charlotte sit atop the A-10 standings.

Read TTN reporter Pete Dorchak’s game story: Another Big 5 crown for the women’s basketball team.

(Photo courtesy of TTN photographer Ron Davis)

First, it was Goongate.

Now, Yawngate?

Thanks to senior forward Pat Calathes’ last-second three-pointer and a game-saving, yet controversial, block by junior center Ahmad Nivins, St. Joseph’s squeaked out a 68-67 victory over Temple Saturday night in front of 10,045 at the Liacouras Center – the largest crowd at the North Broad Street arena since the two teams met in 2004.

After Calathes hit a three to give St. Joe’s (12-5, 4-1 in the Atlantic Ten Conference) a one-point advantage, the Owls (9-9, 2-2) elected not to use a timeout, instead, pushing the ball to senior guard Mark Tyndale, whose potential game-winning lay-up was blocked by Nivins at the buzzer. Nivins appeared to get a hand on the ball once it was on the glass, but no goaltending call was made by the officials, who ran off the court after the clock hit zero.

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Football coach Al Golden announced the promotion of defensive coordinator Mark D’Onofrio to assistant head coach, yesterday.

D’Onofrio, who had a short NFL career in the early 1990s, will continue his duties as defensive coordinator but will take on additional administrative duties.

D’Onofrio is a longtime colleague of Golden’s, having played with him at Penn State and worked with him when Golden was himself a defensive coordinator with the University of Virginia before he was brought to Temple.

D’Onofrio is a native of North Bergen, N.J.

Over at St. Joseph’s, a suburban little brother of Temple’s with one foot in the city and the rest of its hawkish mass in the Main Line, they say that the Hawk will never die.

The puns are overdone, tonight’s men’s basketball game at the Liacouras Center, pitting Big 5 rivals Temple and St. Joe’s, should suffice.

Temple is coming off a thumping of fellow Big 5 rival Penn on Wednesday and an upset of then-No. 20 Xavier, with an overtime win over St. Louis wedged in the middle.

If Temple thumped Penn, then St. Joe’s took a baseball bat to the back of the Quakers, ripping them apart, 82-42 last week.

But, there is a particular magic in Temple v. St. Joe’s. Perhaps it is because, aside from Villanova’s surge under Jay Wright’s coaching, these two teams have to have the most history between them in the Big 5, easily one of the most significant regional (quasi) conferences in the country.

Or maybe it is because both of our mascots are birds.

Anyway, yesterday we posted on a chance for you to win $5,000 for a 500-word suggestion on how to increase attendance at Temple athletic events. Understand that there won’t be any convincing needed to increase attendance at a St. Joe’s basketball match against Temple in the Liacouras Center.

It gets down tonight at 6 p.m. Tickets are free for students. Get out there.

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Here are photographs from the Temple vs. UPenn game yesterday at the Liacouras Center. The Owls defeated Penn 80-64.

Images are brought to you by TTN Photographers Sammy Munsch and Ron Davis.

Anything the men’s basketball team can do, the women’s basketball team can do too.

Upset a Top 25 ranked opponent at home? Check. String together a three-game winning streak? Check.

The visiting Owls defeated Richmond, 47-40, Wednesday night behind a furious 25-4 run to end the game.

Senior guard Ashley Morris notched 17 of her team-high 22 points during the Owls (10-10, 3-1 A-10) massive late-game comeback to help down the Spiders (9-10, 2-2).

The Owls trailed, 36-22, with 13:20 remaining in the second half.

It wasn’t a pretty one, for sure. The Owls shot 27 percent from the field, while the Spiders weren’t much better, shooting 35 percent for the game.

For their next game, the Owls will hit the road for a meeting with Rhode Island (9-10, 2-2) Sunday at noon.

(Photo courtesy of Owlsports.com)

Mark Tyndale dunksThe men’s basketball team is on a season-high three-game winning streak after defeating Penn, 80-64, Wednesday night at the Liacouras Center.

The victory gave Temple coach Fran Dunphy his first win over his former squad. Dunphy coached Penn from 1989 to 2006.

Junior Dionte Christmas led the Owls (9-8, 2-1 A-10, 1-1 Big 5) with 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Senior guard Mark Tyndale added 18 points, seven rebounds and six assists, while sophomore guard Ryan Brooks scored 15 poinLuis Guzman hurtts off the bench.

The loss dropped the Quakers (5-12 overall) to 0-4 in the Big 5.

Despite the victory, the Owls may have also suffered a loss.

Starting point guard, sophomore Luis Guzman left the game near the end of the first half after falling hard on his right hip. Dunphy said the 6-foot-2 Bronx-native may have suffered a hip pointer.

However, Temple fans received a pick-me-up in the form of free Qdoba tacos, thanks to the Owls scored final point tally.

Qdoba tacoNext up for the taco-distributing Owls is a date with fellow Big 5 rival, St. Joseph’s (11-5, 3-1 A-10, 1-0 Big 5), at the Liacouras Center Saturday at 6 p.m.

Check out Broad & Cecil tomorrow to see a photo slideshow of tonight’s Penn-Temple game.
Since, as of midnight Thursday, The Temple News Web site is undergoing a routine upkeep session, a game story follows after the jump. (Basketball photos courtesy of Ron Davis – Temple News).

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Oscar-nominated actor Heath Ledger, who gained critical acclaim in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, was found dead in a Manhattan apartment, CNN.com reports.  He was 28.

No cause of death has been released by New York City police.  The New York Fire Department received a call just before 2:30 p.m. about a “cardiac arrest” emergency.

Ledger grew to stardom in the 1990s, particularly in his homeland, Australia.  He gained critical acclaim for a small role in 2001’s Moster’s Ball.  Other credits include A Knight’s Tale, The Order and Lords of Dogtown.

He earned his Oscar nomination in 2005 starring opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain, a story of two cowboyws having a secret relationship.  It was on the set of that movie where he met fiancée Michelle Williams.  Together, they have a daughter, Matilda Rose Ledger, born Oct. 28, 2005.  Gyllenhaal is Matilda’s godfather.

Most recently, Ledger starred in I’m Not There, an account of Bob Dylan’s life.  According to IMDb.com, he is set to star in The Dark Knight, premiering later this year.

The men’s basketball team followed up on its upset of then- No. 20 Xavier with a 54-53 overtime victory at St. Louis, The Temple News is reporting.

With the win, the Owls are off to a strong start in conference play after beginning the non-conference season at 0-3. The Owls knocked of a St. Louis team that pulled an upset of its own earlier in the week, knocking off No. 23 Rhode Island Thursday.

This second straight win came after the team dropped three consecutive matches, against Florida, Duke and Charlotte respectively.

Temple returns to the Liacouras Center to play its Big 5 rival and Head Coach Fran Dunphy’s former squad, the University of Pennsylvania at 7pm on Wednesday.