Welcome to New York, Temple. It’s been waiting for you.
OK, so Taylor Swift won’t be part of the welcoming committe, but the Owls won’t mind. Instead, Frank Sinatra and Jay Z blasted through the Liacouras Center speakers after Temple dispatched Louisiana Tech, 77-59, to advance to the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden. Temple will face Miami in the semis on Tuesday (see Instant Replay).
Much like Sunday’s 90-77 over George Washington, Temple (26-10) got its points from a number of different players. Senior guard Will Cummings scored 15, while teammate Jesse Morgan added 17 of his own.
But Temple’s most dynamic performer came off the bench.
Sunday, Devin Coleman did the most damage of the Owls’ reserves. This time, it was junior guard Daniel Dingle. Dingle scored seven points in 20 minutes, adding five rebounds and a pair of assists after dribble penetration that led to vicious dunks by Devontae Watson and Obi Enechionyia.
Temple’s players attributed Samson-like powers to the Union, N.J. native. Both Cummings and Quenton DeCosey claimed in the postgame press conference that a recent haircut was the impetus behind Dingle’s performance.
“Dan’s probably the best passer that I’ve played with,” Cummings added. “He makes some of the craziest passes that you don’t think are gonna make it to the person and they do. That’s his game. He’s got that New York swag to him and he plays with it.”
Meanwhile, Temple frustrated the Bulldogs (27-9) by not giving them the easy looks that they thrive on. Louisiana Tech entered with a plus-4.9 turnover margin per game, but the Owls only committed five giveaways.
“I did think that we took care of the ball pretty well on the offensive end and we had opportunities,” head coach Fran Dunphy said. “I thought our one stretch, we were just driving it to the rim, we weren’t really running anything. They take you out of a lot of stuff you want to run and driving it to the rim seemed to be the best offense that we had.”
Indeed, the Owls finished with 32 points in the paint and 10 points on second-chance opportunities. Temple also won the rebounding battle by a 39-32 margin.
The Owls’ ability to shoot the deep ball also burned the Bulldogs. A pair of Morgan three-pointers from the right wing little over four-and-a-half minutes into the second half extended the Temple lead to 12 after the Bulldogs had cut the margin to five, 43-38, just two minutes earlier.
Raheem Appleby, Louisiana Tech’s leading scorer, finished just 4 of 15 from the field, scoring 10 points. The Bulldogs shot 5 for 18 from beyond the arc.
Making matters worse, the Bulldogs lost their starting point guard, Speedy Smith, to a left ankle injury midway through the second half. The Conference USA Player of the Year had to be helped off the floor.
“He’s a really tough kid,” Louisiana Tech coach Mike White said. “And I’m sure he’ll be fine."
After winning three straight on their home court, the Owls will now head to the self-proclaimed “World’s Most Famous Arena” to take on Miami at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night.
While Dunphy, by his own admission, is “a big-soaker-inner” of MSG history, the trip up north has a much simpler meaning to Cummings.
“It means we’re still playing basketball, that’s what it means,” he said.