College Hoops: Owls Ready to Host La Salle on Wednesday
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The grind of the Atlantic 10 schedule continues Wednesday evening for both Temple and La Salle, when the two city rivals face each other at the Liacouras Center.
Both teams come into this game off losses. La Salle fell at Dayton on Saturday (see game story), at the same time that Temple was losing at Richmond.
"We did not play very well in the first half," Temple head coach Fran Dunphy tells KYW Newsradio. "I thought they competed harder than we did in that first half, and we had to match their intensity. They beat us off the boards pretty badly. I thought that we guarded stuff, which is always a challenge for us, and I think anyone who plays a team like Richmond, I thought we guarded it pretty well. But we did not compete down low for rebounding, and they got a couple of stickbacks, which hurt us."
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Now, Dunphy's 11-5 Owls are getting ready for the 13-5 Explorers and their four-guard attack.
"Their talent makes them more difficult than just the fact that it's four guards," Dunphy says. "They are talented, they make shots, every one of them is shooting a very good percentage from the three-point line. They just know how to play, their talent and their basketball IQs are outstanding."
As for the keys to success in this one?
"Patience on offense. That doesn't mean that we hold the ball, what it means is maybe there's an extra pass to be made during the course of the possession. And our toughness has to be there, where we can step up and make shots."
This is not the Big 5 matchup between these two teams. That comes later this season, when they meet at Gola Arena.
Tipoff on Wednesday night is set for 7:30pm.
