Graduate center Micheal Eric reinjured his right patella during the men’s basketball team’s practice last Friday. Eric will sit out the Owls’ (3-1) away game today at 2 p.m. against Bowling Green.
It is the same injury that kept Eric from competing in the team’s remaining 10 games last season.
This season Eric ranks fourth on the team in scoring (10.5 ppg.) and leads the Atlantic Ten Conference in rebounding (11.3 per game).
In a game where the men’s basketball team wasn’t playing at its best, the Owls picked up their second win of the year in dominant fashion.
Temple defeated Western Michigan 69-55 in the opening round of the Puerto Rican Tip Off. All five Owls’ starters finished in double digits in scoring while holding the Broncos’ standout sophomore center Matt Stainbrook to 14 points.
Owls’ redshirt-senior guard Ramone Moore led all scorers with 15 points, while graduate center Micheal Eric collected a career-high 15 rebounds.
The Owls will play the winner of today’s Purdue vs. Iona game tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the Tip Off semifinals.
On a night when Temple football didn’t even play, their chances of winning the Mid-American Conference Eastern division title ended.
Ohio defeated Bowling Green while Miami (Ohio) lost to Western Michigan, giving Ohio the MAC East title and leaving the Owls clinging to hopes of an at-large bowl bid.
The Bobcats won on a last-second field goal by junior placekicker Matt Weller. Bowling Green led by nine at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but Ohio scored 10 unanswered points to secure a 29-28 win.
Miami (Ohio) held a seven-point lead in the second quarter against Western Michigan before the Broncos scored 17 points in a row and held on to win 24-21.
The Ohio win combined with the Miami (Ohio) loss makes it a mathematical impossibility for Temple to win the MAC East.
The MAC carries three bowl games. The No. 1 team from the MAC plays the No. 2 team from the Sun-Belt Conference in the Go-Daddy.com Bowl on Jan. 8. The No. 2 team from the MAC plays the No. 8 team from the Big Ten Conference in the Little Caesars Bowl on Dec. 27. The No. 3 team from the MAC plays the winner of the Western Athletic Conference in the Idaho Potato Bowl on Dec. 17.
With a win against their final MAC opponent, Kent State, next week, the best that Temple could finish in the conference is fourth.
The Owls could still make it to a bowl game by an at-large bowl bid, potentially taking the conference spot of a team that isn’t bowl eligible (hasn’t won at least six games). Temple could possibly take bowl spots from teams in the WAC, Big East Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference or Pacific 12 Conference.
Coach Fran Dunphy announced today that during the early signing period the men’s basketball team had three high school seniors ink National Letters of Intent.
The future class of 2016 will be 6 foot-6-inch guard/forward Quenton DeCosey (St. Joseph-Metuchen / N.J.), 6 foot-7-inch forward Daniel Dingle (St. Raymond’s / N.Y.), and 6 foot-10-inch center Devontae Watson (Lincoln Park / Pa.)
The recruits each averaged double-double performances in their junior campaigns, as DeCosey recorded 23.4 points and 11.3 rebounds, Dingle posted 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Watson averaged 16 points, 18 rebounds and 12 blocked shots per game.
The Owls (9-10-0, 5-4 A-10) fell to city-rival, the La Salle Explorers, 2-0, in a quarter-final matchup at the Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament on Thursday.
The men’s soccer team made its third appearance in the A-10 playoffs in four years after qualifying as the fourth seed in the tournament and traveling to Saint Louis to take on fifth-seeded La Salle (7-8-4, 4-2-3 A-10). The game was scoreless for the first 66 minutes, but the Explorers scored two unanswered goals despite being outshot by the Owls 25-14 in the game.
La Salle’s sophomore midfielder Jason Plumhoff struck first for the Explorers on an awarded penalty kick in the 67th minute. Later in the 86th minute, freshman forward Rob Friskey added a goal for the Explorers to put the game out of reach.
The Explorers will face second-seeded George Washington in the semi-finals on Friday.
Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, who has been charged with the sexual assault of eight boys from 1994-2009, had an opportunity to work at Temple.
Sandusky was offered the job of head coach of the football team in December of 1988. Former Athletic Director Charlie Theokas extended the opportunity to Sandusky after the job was vacated by Bruce Arians on Nov. 27 of that year.
Sandusky is currently facing 40 charges of indecent conduct that span over 15 years. The charges include involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault of a person less than 13 years old, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children.
Sandusky allegedly used the Second Mile, a foundation he created to benefit needy children, to seek out his victims.
Sandusky coached under Joe Paterno for 20 years and won two national championships before being offered multiple head coaching positions across the country, including Temple.
In a 1999 article in Sports Illustrated, Sandusky is quoted as saying, “If I hadn’t had the other part of my life—my family and the Second Mile—I would’ve been a head coach.”
Owls were defeated by Fordham at Ambler today 0-1 in overtime. ABOVE: Sophomore defender Drayt Friedman at today’s game, the last regular season A-10 game before playoffs.
In their most meaningful game of the season to date, the Owls came up short against Ohio.
Despite a strong performance by redshirt-sophomore quarterback Chris Coyer, the Owls lost to the Bobcats, 35-31.
A win could have put Temple in position to secure a Mid-American Conference Eastern Division title, but the Owls dropped a half game behind Ohio in the MAC East standings with a 3-3 in-conference record.
Coyer took over at quarterback from redshirt-senior Chester Stewart with less than five minutes remaining in the first quarter and played the rest of the game. Coyer passed for 123 yards and three touchdowns and added a team-high 176 yards rushing.
But the defense couldn’t stop Bobcats’ senior running back Donte Harden and the rest of the Ohio offense. Harden rushed for 184 yards and a touchdown to go along with 75 yards receiving and a touchdown.
After four lead changes in the fourth quarter, the Owls got the ball back with less than two minutes remaining and a chance to win the game. But Coyer’s 4th-down pass intended for senior wide receiver fell short and gave Ohio their 35-31 win.
Senior forward Bridget Settles of the field hockey team was recently selected to compete in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division I Senior Game on Nov. 19 at the University of Louisville. The team’s co-captain was chosen to play with 38 other top Division I players and is the sixth player from Temple to do so in five years.
Settles is one of two Atlantic Ten Conference players selected for team along with Massachusetts senior goalie Alesha Widdall. The national senior team will face off against the U.S. Women’s National Team and each other.
The Haddon Township, N.J. native has scored 18 goals this season, which ranks her at 18th nationally in goals scored per game with .90 goals.
The third-seeded Owls will play second-seeded UMass at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 4 at Saint Joseph’s.
