City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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No one game has the ability to set the tone for a season as much as the opener.

And considering Temple and La Salle were meeting for a Big 5 matchup -- only the third time Temple’s opened with a city contest, and La Salle’s first season-opening matchup of that type in over 20 years -- the anticipation level inside Liacouras Center was as high as could be for November basketball.

And the enthusiastic crowd was treated to a classic, with 40 minutes of basketball not enough to determine who would be happy about the way their 2016-17 season began, and which team would be left to regroup.

Though La Salle’s Jordan Price briefly played hero with a 3-pointer in the last five seconds of regulation, that only delayed the outcome.

A largely-unheralded group of Owls fought off an Explorers group stacked with high-major transfers, with junior Obi Enechionyia and senior Daniel Dingle leading the way in a thrilling, 97-92 overtime win.

“I think confidence-wise it gives us a big boost,” Enechionyia said. “Any time you win the first game, especially for the guys that have been here for a while, we know how that can help...going from here, winning a Big 5 game like this, it’s confidence, really.”

After Temple led the vast majority of the game, going up by 10 points with under eight minutes to go in the second half before La Salle began its comeback.

Price’s 3-pointer from straightaway with 4.7 seconds left tied it at 81, sending it to five extra minutes, but the Explorers couldn’t capitalize on the momentum.

Owls sophomore guard Levan Alston, Jr. had a terrific overtime period with seven of his 14 points, as well as two steals and a block; he also hit two foul shots with five seconds left to seal the win in front of a crowd of 7,768.

“That’s what I came to Temple for, this is exactly what I came to Temple for,” the Haverford School product and son of former Temple guard Levan Alston Sr. said “Big 5, Friday night, that’s what I came here for -- especially being from Philly.”

Enechionyia, expected to become Temple’s dominant force as a junior, did just that with a terrific two-way game, scoring 20 points to go along with a career-high 14 rebounds, chipping in four blocks in 40 minutes of work.

Less-expected was a career night from Daniel Dingle, one of two healthy scholarship seniors on the roster. The 6-7 wing out of St. Raymond’s (N.Y.) had a career-high 21 points on an extremely efficient 11 shots, going 3-of-4 from deep along with five assists, four rebounds and three steals.

“Each game it’s determined by who has the hot hand, it just so happened that I hit shots today,” he said. “Guys believed in me, gave me the ball in the right place to be successful.”

Four other Owls joined the pair in double figures: sophomore center Ernest Aflakpui set a career best with 12 points, freshman Quinton Rose added a dozen and senior forward Mark Williams had 10 as well in addition to Alston.

The only player in Temple’s seven-man rotation who didn’t hit double figures, freshman guard Alani Moore, chipped in eight.

All-in-all, it was an impressive showing from a group that’s missing its starting point guard (senior Josh Brown) thanks to an Achillies injury and only had five scholarship players with any Division I experience heading into the season.

It was the most explosive Temple offensive performance in some time -- the program didn’t even get to the 90-point mark a year ago, and it’s the Owls’ most points since scoring 101 against LIU-Brooklyn on Dec. 21, 2013.

“I thought overall we did run some pretty good offense,” Dunphy said. “Turned it (over) 11 times, we need to be at 10 or less, that would be a great help to us but I thought we ran our offense pretty well.”

La Salle (0-1, 0-1 Big 5), which had high expectations entering the season thanks to the eligibility of Pookie Powell (Memphis), Demetrius Henry (South Carolina) and B.J. Johnson (Syracuse), couldn’t quite keep up with Temple’s physicality inside.

The Owls (1-0, 1-0 Big 5) held a 47-35 advantage on the glass, with Enechionyia and Aflakpui (10 rebounds) leading the way. The Explorers’ two forwards, Henry and redshirt junior Tony Washington, both fouled out, combining for 12 points but just seven rebounds in their time on the court.

“I think we weren’t physical enough sometimes in terms of our rebounding and just holding onto the ball,” La Salle head coach John Giannini said. “We have to come up with rebounds, especially when they’re in our hands...they had four points off rebounds that were literally in our hands and bobbled out to them for a layup.”

Johnson paced La Salle with a career-high 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting (3-8 from 3-point range), one more than Price, the team’s leading scorer from a year ago. Powell had 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists, while freshman Isiah Deas had a dozen in his first collegiate action.

The Explorers get back in action next Tuesday with a home game against Delaware (1-0). Temple hosts New Hampshire on Monday.