Temple Readies For Regular Season Home Stretch
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Temple Owls sit at 21-8 with just two games remaining in the regular season. They will play the first of those two Wednesday night in New York as they visit Fordham.
The Owls picked up a win on Saturday over Rhode Island, 76-70. That improved them to 9-5 in the Atlantic 10 (tied for fourth with Butler). The Owls earned that win without the services of sophomore forward Anthony Lee. He sat out the game with a hip pointer.
"He's going to see the doctor today (Monday), they'll do some testing on him," Temple head coach Fran Dunphy tells KYW Newsradio. "Hopefully he will be ready to go (Wednesday). We practiced already (Monday) morning and he was not able to go. We'll see. I think day-to-day is what the doctors and trainers are telling me. We certainly hope we have him, but we're going to have to be prepared that he may not be 100%."
Fran Dunphy Interview
The Owls got a great contribution in the win over Rhode Island from sophomore guard Will Cummings. He scored a career-high 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field. He was also responsible for four of the Owls' six steals.
"We need Will at this point, at both ends of the court," Dunphy says. "And to have he and (guard) T.J. (DiLeo) available to us as two guys that do basically the same thing, it's pretty nice for us."
It has been a struggle for Fordham this season. They are just 6-23 on the season (2-12 in the A-10). On Saturday, they visited St. Joe's and got hammered, 82-56. The Rams played that game without their fine senior forward Chris Gaston, he was out with an illness. His status for Wednesday is unknown, but Dunphy says he is a force.
"He is an all-conference first teamer coming back this year and he's been hurt a number of times this year (played in only 15 games)," Dunphy says. "But certainly he can go for 20 (points) and 10 (rebounds) in a heartbeat. They have a solid team and (head coach) Tom (Pecora)'s done a really good job of bringing some young guys along."
Temple and Fordham will tip-off at 7:00pm on Wednesday night.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
