(Post written by Todd Orodenker)
Dawn Staley’s Temple Owls sure had an interesting trip to St. Louis.
First, the Owls learned mid-game that Xavier lost, which meant that the squad now controls their own destiny in the A-10. Temple (18-11, 11-2 A-10) is locked in a two-way tie with George Washington for first place in the conference, but the Owls won the only meeting between the two teams earlier in the season and can sew up a first round bye and a No. 1 seed in the A-10 tournament with either a win over visiting Massachusetts Saturday (Tip off is set for 2 p.m.) or a George Washington loss.
Against the Billikens, the Owls shot 55 free throws, making 32 of them — both team records. Finally, they closed out the Bauman-Eberhardt Center, a gym Saint Louis has been playing basketball in for a loooong time by defeating the Billikens, 77-66.
Sadly, the game didn’t matter that much to the people of St. Louis. Only 689 brave souls came out to watch the Billikens (what is that, exactly?) finish off that historic building.
Meanwhile, the men’s team played a game where the most memorable moment was Mark Tyndale crashing into the legendary Al Shrier, who was seated along press row, while scrambling for a loose ball.
Mr. Shrier, the special assistant to the athletic director and a long-time member of the Temple athletic administration was a little shaken up, but walked it off and was moving around with ease after the game. They don’t call him a legend for nothing.
The Owls (15-12, 8-5 A-10) defeated visiting Charlotte, 75-61, in front of a little more than 4,000 at the Liacouras Center and will now look for revenge against St. Joe’s (17-8, 8-4) on Sunday.
It seems like no matter what Temple tries, students just won’t show up en masse to the university’s sporting events.
Will things ever change for the better?
Read TTN’s game story on the men’s win: “Men’s basketball team stops Goldwire, beats Charlotte”
Read about sophomore Ryan Brooks’ performance: “Building Brooks”
Read TTN’s game recap on the women’s win: “Staley’s squad remains atop A-10 with win over Saint Louis”
Also read: “Attendance spotty at event to improve attendance”
Read more on Al Shrier from Room 243 – The blog of The Temple News: “Al Shrier: Temple to its athletic core”
(Archived game photos courtesy of TTN photographers Kevin Cook and Ron Davis. Al Shrier picture courtesy of www.palestradocumentary.com)
