A10 Blog
Temple took the first of the semifinal matchups at the A-10 Tournament. The Owls opened up a 13-2 lead to start the game and never looked back en route to a 57-44 win.
Not even a water leak, which delayed the game for about 10 minutes in the first, could slow down Temple or wake Rhode Island up. The Rams mustered up just 17 points in the first half and never really made the game close after they fell behind.
Rhode Island, which game into the game as Joe Lunardi's final team in the NCAA Tournament, could have used a win to solidify a spot in the tournament. Instead, they find themselves squarely on the bubble.
Temple moved on to the championship game and will be playing for its third straight conference tournament title.
By Nate Waggenspack
The A-10 Semifinal Matchups are all set. The top three seeds all advanced, and fifth seeded Rhode Island defeated St. Louis to fill out the final four.
Temple beat St. Bonaventure in the first game of the day. Lavoy Allen had 14 points and 15 rebounds for the Owls, who coasted to a 69-51 victory over the eight seeded Bonnies. Temple, which won the A-10 regular season, is looking to repeat as conference champions.
Rhode Island came up with the only upset of the day as the Rams dismantled fourth seeded St. Louis, 63-47. Rhode Island's defense delivered its best performance of the season in holding their opponents to the lowest output so far. The Rams were led by Lamonte Ulmer with 16 points. Kwamain Mitchell's 18 points were not enough for the Billikens.
Xavier beat Dayton by coming back from as much as 15 down in the second half. Jordan Crawford and Terrell Holloway had a combined 42 points, and Jason Love had 17 points and 10 rebounds in the Musketeers' 78-73 win.
Richmond took care of business over Massachusetts in the nightcap of the quarterfinals. Despite a flurry of late baskets by the Minutemen and 24 points by Anthony Gurley, Richmond was able to hold off the run and secure its spot in the semis. They did so with a balanced attack on offense, with five players scoring in double figures.
In the first semifinal game Temple will play Rhode Island at 1, and then Xavier and Richmond will play afterward.
By Nate Waggenspack
While the game largely came to an end with a technical foul assessed to Rob Lowery with 33 seconds left, it had been getting away from Dayton for much longer than that.
UD lost another close game to Xavier Friday when the Musketeers rallied from being down by 15 points in the second half to win 78-73. The sophomore guard tandem of Terrell Holloway and Jordan Crawford proved to be more than Dayton could handle, combing to score 42 points, 27 of them in the second half.
The game proved to be a microcosm of Dayton's season, as many of the same things that have plagued Dayton this year came back to haunt them in the second half.
Dayton had delivered a phenomenal performance and led 59-44 with 11:21 remaining in the game, and then Xavier began to make its run. They were aided by UD foul trouble, which had them shooting the bonus from the free throw line with just under 10 minutes to play.
Xavier was able to close the gap from the foul line (33-41 from the stripe for the game), while they shut Dayton down offensively. The Flyers did not score a field goal for over 10 minutes during the second half.
Xavier was able to make its comeback complete and even take the lead. With UD trailing by two, Lowery brought the ball down the court and called timeout. Holloway made a move to steal the ball and Lowery retaliated with a swipe of his arm. The officials immediately called a dead-ball technical foul on Lowery, which resulted in two free throws and the ball for Xavier. Holloway made four consecutive free throws, and Xavier's lead was six, effectively sealing the game.
While the technical was a deciding play, things had begun going downhill long before that. UD turned the ball over 18 times, shot 17-26 from the foul line, and were outrebounded 39-28. In addition to that, foul trouble haunted Dayton throughout the game. Devin Searcy fouled out with over six minutes left and Chris Johnson played just 11 minutes and scored zero points due to foul trouble throughout the game.
With the loss, Dayton's NCAA Tournament hopes are almost certainly finished. The Flyers will now await a call from the NIT Tournament, which will also be selected Sunday night. Xavier moves on to the Atlantic 10 Semifinals, its ninth consecutive appearance in the final four. They will face the winner of Richmond and Massachusetts.
The Flyers were unable to recover from Rob Lowery's technical foul, and went down to rival Xavier 78-73.
After Holloway made both free throws off the technical, Xavier got the ball and Holloway made two more, giving Xavier a six point lead, and Dayton could not dig itself out of that hole.
Xavier advances to the A-10 semifinals to play the winner of the Richmond-UMass game tomorrow.
Jordan Crawford tied the game on a runner and Terrell Holloway gave Xavier its first lead in ages with a three point play.
Chris Wright scored Dayton's first field goal in over 10 minutes to bring Dayton back within one.
Crawford was fouled however on the next possession by Marcus Johnson. The sophomore hit one of two foul shots.
Dayton then came down the court and called at timeout, after which Rob Lowery and Terrell Holloway got in a scuffle and a technical foul was called on Lowery for swiping at Holloway.
