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Saint Joseph's comes from behind to beat Wyatt, Temple

02/02/2013, 10:00pm EST

By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The end of an era merited an equally exciting finish.

And, though Khalif Wyatt did everything he possibly could for Temple, the energy and emotion of the home crowd at Hagan Arena carried Saint Joseph’s to a 70-69 victory over Temple in the Big 5 rivalry’s final game with both schools as members of the Atlantic 10 Conference.

“Certainly a game worthy of having the title ‘Philadelphia’ on it,” SJU coach Phil Martelli said after the game. “I’m delighted for the players, and they’re welcome to enjoy this until Monday morning.”

After Temple led by as many as nine in the second half, the Hawks tied it at 64 with 2:03 remaining on a pair of Halil Kanacevic free throws. Carl Jones then put SJU on top with a driving layup as the shot clock wound down with a minute to play, but Wyatt’s quick burst to the hoop on the other end tied things up with 56.3 seconds left.

C.J. Aiken gave the home team the lead back, outfighting his own teammate Ronald Roberts for a lob pass and laying it in off the glass; after Wyatt missed a layup for Temple, Kanacevic made two free throws with 16 seconds remaining to put the home team up 70-66.

Wyatt wasn’t going to let St. Joe’s get away that easily, nailing an NBA-range 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining. After Jones missed the front end of a one-and-one with 7.7 seconds remaining, Wyatt went the full length of the court only to have the ball knocked out of bounds with 0.7 seconds showing on the clock, giving Temple (14-7, 3-4 A-10) one final chance at pulling out a victory in the final league matchup between the teams.

Scootie Randall took the inbounds pass and found Wyatt in the left corner coming off a screen, but Wyatt was unable to set his feet and his 18-foot off-balance shot fell short of the rim, eliciting a huge roar from the sellout crowd at Hagan Arena.

“When you have 0.7, you have a bounce in you, you can still bounce it once,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “I think he just rushed that last shot, but I don’t want to give the ball to anybody else in that situation with Khalif Wyatt there.”

“I wasn’t sure how much time 0.7 (seconds) was, if I had time to catch and shoot my regular shot, or if I had to rush it,” Wyatt admitted. “So I rushed it.”

As he tends to do in Temple’s biggest games, Wyatt went off–this time for a career-high 34 points to lead all scorers. The 6-foot-4 Norristown grad shot 11-of-24 for the game, including 7-of-14 from three, adding three assists against just one turnover.

“Tonight he had opportunities, I think he took advantage of them,” Dunphy said. “He can probably distribute a little more than he did tonight…but for me, anytime he has the ball, I think we are a dangerous offensive team.”

Roberts, a 6-8 junior forward, had a team highs in both points (18) and rebounds (12) for SJU. He could have had an even bigger night if not for going just 6-of-14 despite taking most of his shots from within 10 feet, but he still proved to be a huge problem on the interior for Temple to handle.

“The thing that I liked about Ron is the 12 rebounds” Martelli said. “He’s worked really hard in the low post…it’s still a work in progress, as is our team.”

Temple, headed for the Big East next season, is playing Big 5 rivals St. Joe’s and La Salle just once this season instead of the usual home-and-home matchups due to the arrival of Butler and Virginia Commonwealth to the Atlantic 10 for this season.

Saint Joseph’s (13-7, 4-3 A-10) matched Wyatt’s output by going inside, getting 16 points from Aiken and 12 from Kanacevic in addition to Roberts’ big night as those three forwards helped SJU to a 40-16 advantage in the paint.

“I was not surprised,” Dunphy said. “They are very bullish, they have two guys that are very, very strong.”

It was a back-and-forth affair all evening, with neither team leading by five points until a pair of Will Cummings free throws put Temple ahead 58-52 with 7:04 remaining.

Cummings would tie his career highs in field goals (four) and points (11) as the only other Owl in double figures. Jake O’Brien added nine points off the bench but went just 1-of-6 from three while Anthony Lee chipped in just three points along with his 10 rebounds.

Saint Joseph’s has now won three straight league games after a 1-3 start in conference play had the preseason champions sitting near the bottom of the standings. Temple, which looked like it would be certain to earn its sixth-straight NCAA tournament bid after an upset of then-No. 3 Syracuse back on Dec. 22, now has some serious ground to make up after falling below .500 in conference play with just nine games remaining in the conference season.

Both teams resume Atlantic 10 play on Wednesday. Temple hosts Charlotte at the Liacouras Center (7:00 p.m.) while St. Joseph’s travels to Dayton (7:00 p.m., TCN).