#Big5Magic was a buzz on the Twitter sphere on Wednesday night as 4 of the 5 Philadelphia Big 5 teams faced off against one another. LaSalle hosted #12 Villanova while the Owls traveled up City Avenue to take on the Saint Joseph’s Hawks. The Big 5 is comprised of Temple, St. Josephs, LaSalle, Villanova, and Penn. All five of these teams are Philadelphia-area colleges who have been battling since 1955.
4,200 fans marking a sellout crowd piled into the Hawk’s Hagan Arena on Wednesday to catch some classic Big 5 action. The home team came out soaring in the first half going up 20-12 before Temple head coach Fran Dunphy had to call a timeout. The Hawks Isaiah Miles dropped 10 of his career high 20 points in the first half. The Owls turned the ball over a total of 14 times in the game. They went into the locker room trailing 34-22 .
In the second half the Owls changed things up a bit and went with a zone defense. While it took a while to get the offense rolling the defense was able to hold St. Joe’s to only 9 points in the first 10 minutes.
With 2 minutes remaining in the game, Temple’s Quenton DeCosey jukes to his left and drives up the baseline for the slam dunk. The junior finished with a game-high 22 points. The Hawks big lead diminished as the Owls pulled within 3 points, 55-52. With 39 seconds left, freshman Obi Enechionya picks off Miles’ pass attempt and swings one down the court to a wide-open Daniel Dingle who launches up a three-pointer which rattles but Josh Brown is there for the put back. Owls down 1, 57-56.
Temple gives it one more shot in the last couple seconds but his shot does not make the rim and Temple goes on to fall to their cross-town rival 58-56.
The Owls move to (4-3, 0-0) on the season. They next play on Saturday against another Big 5 opponent LaSalle (4-3, 0-0) for a 12:00pm tipoff at The Palestra.
Coverage: TV-ESPNews Radio-1210 AM WPHT
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