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Road Demons Grab Muskies!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/17/2008
It was ugly and unexpected and over with about 8 minutes to play. XU just did not rise to the challenge Wednesday night in Philly losing lopsidedly 78-59 to Temple. The Owls seemingly were struggling with a sub .500 record against a pretty good schedule. On paper TU had no stable point guard. Beyond Mark Tyndale and Dionte Christmas they looked very ordinary.
X came out trading baskets and actually forged a bit of a lead midway through the first half. Temple was keeping pace though with support players. Luis Guzman came out of nowhere to pot 13 points before the break. Later tiny guard Chris Clark and Ryan Brooks overachieved. Then 7 footer Sergio Olmos did his Bill Russell impression and scared the Muskies out of the paint. Eventually the TU cream rose to the top and Christmas and Tyndale completed the blow-out by scoring anytime they wanted to in the second half.
XU struggled against primarily a Temple man to man defense. Shooting was awful. CJ Anderson and BJ Raymond combined for an 0 for 13. Stanley Burrell didn't pick-up the slack. He took just 4 shots. Josh Duncan couldn't hold onto the ball. Still despite the warts X trailed just 30-27 at the half and actually began the second half playing well with a 7-1 run to forge a 34-31 lead.
Drew Lavender was running the show with precision in that brief ray of light. Then Christmas and Tyndale began to bomb and drive at will. X couldn't keep up because the 3 pointer would not go down and the inside game was shut down by Olmos. X did not have the pluck to just force the ball inside and get to the foul line and they couldn't muster the energy to get stops against Christmas and Tyndale. Write it off as a bad night in the confernce on the road if you like!
So far in 17 A-10 games played, the home team is 12-5. The league is better and deeper. Temple was bound to put things together. X had won 6 in a row. The Muskies had been shooting over their heads from outside the arc. Still X just looked over matched, ordinary and slow at both ends of the floor. It was sobering.
The road record is not good with L's at Miami, ASU and now Temple and just the one win at Auburn. GW Saturday night in DC takes on extra importance.
The Colonials are a mediocre 5-7 on paper with a 221 RPI but they are athletic and aggresssive defensively and a decent rebounding team. Karl Hobbs has juggled his line-up a bunch do far. The stable parts are senior guard Maurice Rice-MVP of last year's A-10 tourney and junior forward Rob Diggs their top scorer and rebounder. Rice passed up the NBA Draft but he's lost his point guard running mate Carl Elliot. Rice plays better off the ball. GW has a point guard problem but we thought that too about Temple.
Va Tech transfer Wynton Witherspoon has been playing well. GW has a bunch of 6-4 to 6-7 guys who are talented and interchangeable.
The Colonials are poison at the Smith Center. X clobbered them last year but GW has won 8 straight at home since and 32 of its last 33. GW has struggled offensively so far in the league scoring 49 in a win over St Louis and 53 in a loss at Fordham. Shooting numbers are ugly. Typically, Hobbs' teams gamble with the ball and turn it over a lot. GW makes up for that with physical sticky defense.
X will need to find a tougher grind it out mentality over the next couple days. The Muskies sit well in the early league race at 2-1 tied with Dayton, Saint Joe's and Richmond. Charlotte is the lone unbeaten at 2-0 with both wins at home. UD has lost a home game already.
A win at GW stabilzes things for X. Certainly, a more solid, grittier, determined effort will be needed than what was displayed against Temple.
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