Temple Loses Final Game of Philly Hoop Group Classic to St. Johns 55-48

In the final game of the Philly hoop group classic the Temple Owls were ice cold in a losing effort to St. Johns. Temple shot 28% from the floor and 21% from behind the arc. Temples leading scorer was Ramone Moore who had 10 points on 3-13 shooting. Lavoy Allen and Rahlir Jefferson added 9 points each. Perhaps the defining moment offensively for temple was when Ramone Moore had a fast break opportunity and got intentionally fouled under the basket. He got two shots and temple got the ball back. However Moore missed both free throws and Temple missed their shot on the possession following the free throws.

St Johns however had slightly better luck shooting 33% from the floor and 27% from behind the arc. They also out rebounded Temple by 1. The St. Johns offense was led by DJ Kennedy who scored 15 points and converted all 9 attempts from the free throw line. Dwight Hardy also scored double digits adding 11. He was 3-6 from the field and 2-5 from behind the arc. He also converted all 3 attempts from the free throw line.

Temples biggest problem was fouls. Temple committed 23 fouls between 7 people. 23 fouls is the most committed by Temple since December 22 of last year vs Long Beach State. St. Johns shot 30 free throws making 20 of them. That turned out to be 36% of St. Johns offense. Many of the fouls committed by Temple were little bumps or fouls away from the basket. They led to easy points for St. Johns. Three temple players had 4 fouls and 3 more Owls had 3 fouls each. The Temple defense was much sloppier in the game which led to St. Johns scoring easy points on Temple. This could have been due to the fact that their 6'11" forward Michael Eric missed his 2nd consecutive game with a right knee sprain. The Owls lacked a good rebounder to help Lavoy and Craig Williams,and both couldn't make up for Eric's rebounding or shot blocking ability.

Sloppy passing was another factor in the game. Temple committed 14 turnovers and St. Johns committed 17 turnovers. This led to easy lay ups for their opponent at the other end.

All in all it was a very sloppy game where the winner came down to who could make the most of the opportunities they got. That turned out to be St. Johns who shot better and made 20 free throws.

Temple now falls to 4-2 on the year. Their next opponent is at Western Michigan on Tuesday December 1st. Temple needs to regroup and forget about this game as fast as possible. Go Owls!