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March 2, 2008

A-10 Tournament Game Notes

PHILADELPHIA- The Temple women's basketball team earned its fourth #1 seed in the Atlantic 10 Championship after grabbing a share of the 2007-08 A-10 regular season title.  The Owls (19-11, 12-2 A-10) will share the honor with 15th-ranked George Washington (24-5, 12-2 A-10) but grabbed the top seed after defeating the Colonials during the regular season. 

Temple received a first round bye and will play the winner of the Richmond/Duquesne game on Saturday, March 8th at 12 p.m. in the Saint Joseph's Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse.  Xavier (21-8, 11-3) and Charlotte (18-12, 9-5) round out the Conference's top seeds.

The Cherry and White were picked to finish fourth in the A-10's preseason poll and when they suffered narrow losses to Duke, Stanford and Georgia and blowouts by Rutgers and Maryland, it seemed that the A-10 Coaches' prediction would be correct. But once Temple hit the A-10 schedule, it shook off an opening setback at Dayton to win 12 of 13 games the rest of the way.  Now the Owls are looking to win their fourth A-10 Championship in the last five years.

Opening round action commences at noon on Friday, March 7 with a quadruple-header. The four quarterfinal games will start at noon on Saturday, March 8. Sunday's semifinal games will begin at 12:00 pm on March 9, while Monday's Championship game, on March 10, will by broadcast nationally by ESPN2 at 5:00 pm.

The Cherry and White own a 7-3 all-time record against the Spiders and 26-10 against the Dukes, having won the last 10 meetings.  TU defeated Richmond, 47-40, and Duquesne, 74-66, earlier in the season.  A win in the quarterfinal would advance Temple to the semifinal round on Sunday at 12 p.m. against the winner of #4 Charlotte and Dayton/Massachusetts.  The Owls defeated Charlotte, 66-53, and Massachusetts, 64-46, but lost to Dayton, 62-49, in their A-10 opener.

Dominate in `08
Temple struggled to find its identity in the latter part of 2007 and early part of 2008.  The Owls seemed to have gotten their mojo back, however, as the squad has won 12 of its last 13 games.  Temple's lone loss during that stretch was a 64-55 battle at Xavier on Feb. 9.

Home Court Advantage?
Temple may be 24-21 all-time in the Atlantic 10 Tournament but it owns a 16-6 record in its home city of Philadelphia.  Three of the last four A-10 titles that the Owls have won came when the Tournament was held at TU's own Liacouras Center (2002) and the Saint Joseph's Fieldhouse (2004, 2006).  In Staley's seven seasons, the Cherry and White have gone 15-3 in the Conference Tournament.

Maker's Mark
The Owls have clearly made their mark in A-10 history by winning four of the last six Conference championships, including three in a row from 2004-06.  Temple has also gone an impressive 67-9 over the last five regular seasons and has earned the Tournament's top seed four times.