Game 41: Men at Temple

The men's team travels to Philadelphia, PA to face Temple (10-9, 3-2) this afternoon at the Liacouras Center. GW (5-11, 1-5) is coming off of a tough 61-59 loss to St. Joseph's at the Smith Center on Wednesday night. In that one, three Colonials reached double figures in scoring: Rob Diggs (20 points on 10-10 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds), Wynton Witherspoon (12 points, five assists), and Cheyenne Moore (10 points). On the final play of the game, Xavier Alexander's long inbounds pass was intended for Maureece Rice, but he was knocked over by Ahmad Nivins and time expired.

The Owls, who were picked to finish ninth out of 14 teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference, return three starters from the squad that went 12-18 and lost in the opening round of the conference tournament. Temple is led by two players averaging double figures in scoring: preseason All-A-10 Second Team selection 6-5 junior guard/forward Dionte Christmas (20.4 points, 6.4 rebounds per game this season), the conference's leading scorer, and Third Team pick 6-5 senior forward Mark Tyndale (15.5 points, 6.3 rebounds). Coach Fran Dunphy is 22-27 in his second season at Temple; he is 332-190 in 19 seasons as a head coach.

Temple is coming off of a 58-50 win at Fordham on Thursday night. In that one, three Owls reached double figures in scoring: 5-8 senior guard Chris Clark (16 points), Tyndale (14 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, three steals), and Christmas (13 points, eight rebounds). Temple outscored the Hawks 35-24 in the second half and held St. Joseph's to just 4-23 (17.4%) shooting from behind the three-point line. The Owls come in having won four of their last five games. Temple's most impressive victory of the season was a 78-59 home win over Xavier on January 16.

This is the 63rd-ever meeting between these programs; GW is 16-46. The last meeting came on February 17, 2007 at the Smith Center, which the Colonials won 84-72 behind the first triple-double in GW history by Carl Elliott (17 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists). Four other Colonials also reached double figures in scoring: Rice (16 points), Damian Hollis (15 points, four rebounds), Diggs (14 points, six rebounds), and Travis King (10 points). Tyndale led the Owls with 33 points and five rebounds, while Christmas was held to five points on 2-14 shooting and four assists. GW has won five of the last six games in the series and is 6-22 at Temple. The Colonials are 3-2 at the Liacouras Center.

When combining the scoring talents of Christmas and Tyndale with the Colonials' inability to play well on the road, the pick here is for Temple to make it 10-straight GW losses away from the Smith Center.

Adam Rosenbloom and Evan Waxman have the call for WRGW with Alex Tainsh handling production duties. You can listen here starting at 1.40 p.m. Our own Greg Shapiro will join Byron Kerr for the 3WT broadcast. You can listen here starting at 1.50 p.m. Scott Graham and Rob Kennedy have the call for CN8. You can watch live starting at two p.m.

Game notes: Rob Diggs has been named the A-10 Player of the Week...GW has lost all nine of its games away from the Smith Center this season...The Colonials are 11-17 in their last 28 games away from the Smith Center...GW is just 2-3 when scoring at least 70 points...The Colonials were 16-1 when scoring at least 70 points last season...GW's current five-game losing streak is the longest for the program since losing six-straight during the 2002-2003 season...Rice needs six points to pass Gene Guarilia for 29th place in program history...Rice needs 24 points to pass Vaughn Jones for 28th place in program history...Diggs needs 16 points for 600 for his career...Witherspoon needs 12 points for 400 for his career...Rice is averaging 9.2 points per game in five career meetings with Temple...Diggs is averaging six points per game in three career meetings with Temple...GW is 1-2 on Sundays...Coach Karl Hobbs is 5-3 against Temple in his career...Dunphy is 0-2 against GW...If the A-10 Tournament started today, GW would not qualify for it...Since the A-10 expanded to 14 teams before the 2005-2006 season, only Duquesne (2006), LaSalle (2007), and St. Bonaventure (2006 and 2007) have failed to do so...This game is being played on Super Bowl Sunday because of a scheduling conflict at the Liacouras Center...The Cheer Tech Northeast Championships took place there yesterday.

Starting lineups and other notes to follow from the Liacouras Center once we get closer to tip-off. Please check back later.

Update, 4.26 p.m. - Here were the starting lineups:

GW
G - Maureece Rice (6-1 senior from Philadelphia, PA)
F - Wynton Witherspoon (6-7 junior from Duluth, GA)
F - Damian Hollis (6-8 sophomore from Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
F - Rob Diggs (6-8 junior from Brandywine, MD)
F - Hermann Opoku (6-9 sophomore from Vienna, Austria)

Temple
G - Luis Guzman (6-3 sophomore from Bronx, NY)
G - Dionte Christmas (6-5 junior from Philadelphia, PA)
F - Mark Tyndale (6-5 senior from Philadelphia, PA)
F - Lavoy Allen (6-9 freshman from Morrisville, PA)
C - Sergio Olmos (7-0 junior from Valencia, Spain)

GW loses its 10th-straight away from the Smith Center, falling 93-80. GW got strong performances from Rice (22 points, six assists), Diggs (19 points, six rebounds), and Wilmore (18 points). GW led by one with 7.49 left in the game, but Temple closed the contest on a 24-10 run to knock the Colonials to 1-6 in the A-10, tied with St. Bonaventure for the worst in the conference, and 5-12 overall.

Thats all for today. We'll be back on Wednesday when the men host LaSalle. As always, thanks for stopping by.