Ready for Temple?

[IE]

The Liacouras Center in Philadelphia will be rocking at 9 p.m. Saturday for the showdown between Xavier and Temple. These are the basics about the Owls:

1. Temple (18-5, 7-2 Atlantic 10) has a half-game lead atop the A-10 standings. Xavier (16-8, 7-3) is tied for second with Saint Louis and UMass. The winner can control its destiny in the conference race.

2. The Owls have some super guards in Juan Fernandez, Ramone Moore and Khalif Wyatt. Fernandez runs the offense, Moore is the most athletic (and the highest-scoring player in the conference with 18.3 ppg) but Musketeers coach Chris Mack just loves the way Wyatt plays. Wyatt reminds him of former Wake Forest player Justin Gray. ?He?s got such a savviness about him,? Mack said of Wyatt, in the sense that he appears slow and would seemingly be easy to stop ? and isn?t. The defending A-10 Sixth Man of the Year is averaging a conference-second 16.6 points.

3. Temple?s offense has dictated many of its wins but its defense has improved in the six games since 6-foot-11 grad student Micheal Eric returned from a right patella fracture.

Temple is 21st in the RPI and has non-conference wins over Duke (78-73), Maryland (73-60) and Villanova (78-67). Take away the A-10 conference stakes and it?s a big game on its own from an NCAA Tournament resume perspective. Xavier ? 59th in the RPI ? could use a win over a Top 25 RPI team on its home court.

 

[IE]

Xavier hopes to defend its way to win at Temple


Owls riding seven-game win streak



With the Atlantic 10 lead at stake Saturday at Temple, Xavier?s men?s basketball team will rely on its trademark defense to set the tone for the rest of its regular season.

The Musketeers enter the 9 p.m., ESPN2-televised showdown at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia with the league?s best field goal percent defense (39.1) and second-ranked 3-point field goal percent defense (30.2).

XU (16-8, 7-3 A-10) flexed some of those numbers for 35 minutes at Memphis and carried over the effort to the first half of Wednesday?s Rhode Island win, holding the Rams to 17 first-half points on 22.2 percent shooting.

The figures concern Owls coach Fran Dunphy.

?Their defensive numbers are terrific,? Dunphy said. ?They?re very aggressive, very talented defensively. They have a good plan. I don?t know how many good looks we?re going to get at the basket but when we do, we better knock them down.?

Aside from the first half of Wednesday?s George Washington game, the Owls (18-5, 7-2) have had few offensive woes in their seven-game winning streak. Guards Ramone Moore and Khalif Wyatt are the conference?s top two scorers and, with point guard Juan Fernandez, account for 46.1 of the team?s 75 points.

Temple has converted 51.5 percent of its field goals in its winning streak. It has shot 40.1 percent from the perimeter throughout the season, thanks to a penetrate-and-pitch move that frees up players behind the arc.

?We?re going to have to be there on the catch. We?re going to have to keep dribble penetration at a minimum because they set up one another really well,? Xavier coach Chris Mack said.

?When you get beat off the dribble, it forces a defender to help, the ball is kicked to an open 3-point shooter and that?s been their recipe all year. So for us, it starts with limiting the dribble penetration and challenging 3-point shots.?

Fernandez suffered a hip pointer in Wednesday?s comeback win over the Colonials and was limited to 24 minutes. Dunphy said Fernandez did not practice Thursday.

?It?s more precautionary than anything else. My guess is that he?ll practice (today),? Dunphy said.

Tu Holloway said after the Rhody game that Xavier didn?t put much stock in moral victories, but the team?s success for much of the Memphis game provided momentum and ?let us know we could go play (well) on the road.?

Mack would like to see XU claim shots it wants down the stretch, finish around the basket and accrue defensive stops to maintain a lead at a game?s end. But he?s also confident in veterans who have won in late-game situations many times in their careers.

The team could have more defensive reinforcement from Justin Martin, who emerged Wednesday after a two-game stint on the bench. Martin watched at George Washington and Memphis because of his inconsistency in practice. He played 11 minutes against Rhody.

?Somebody asked me the other day, ?Have you lost confidence in Justin?? I?ve never lost confidence in him,? Mack said. ?But what Justin lost was an opportunity to play because his practice habits weren?t what they needed to be.?

Martin has parlayed strength and intent into rebounds in stretches this season. He had five defensive boards in 14 minutes against Saint Louis and three offensive rebounds against Duquesne.

He?ll be part of an XU contingent attempting to thwart an Owls team that moves the ball well and specializes in preventing defenses from setting up.

A Musketeers win at Temple would be a milestone, and not just in the standings. Xavier hasn?t defeated the Owls at Temple since 2004.