Temple ends losing streak and prepares for Aztecs
San Diego silenced their critics with a win and earned a pass to round three in the West Region of the NCAA Tournament against the seventh-seeded Temple Owls on Saturday in Tucson.
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#7 Temple (26-7, 14-2 A-10) vs. #2 San Diego State (33-2, 14-2 MWC)
Date/Time: Saturday, March 19, 6:10 PM ET
Venue: McKale Center in Tucson, AZ.
Broadcast: TNT
Money Line: San Diego State -250, Temple +210
Spread: San Diego State -6
Over/Under: 125
The Owls ended an 11-game NCAA tournament-losing streak by beating in-state rival Penn State in style as Juan Fernandez sank a fade away 18-footer with less than a second to play to hand Temple a wild 66-64 victory.
Temple, an elite program in the A-10 for decades, hadn’t won a tournament game since 2001.
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Fernandez and Ramone Moore each had 23 points to lead the Owls. It was a season-high for Fernandez, who was coming off a 3-for-17 performance against Richmond in the A-10 tournament.
Meanwhile, Steve Fisher’s Aztecs made the most out of their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance, and the third in five years, grabbing their first ever tournament victory by destroying Northern Colorado 68-50 on Thursday afternoon.
The Aztec’s defense did its job shutting down Devon Beitzel after a second-half scoring flurry answering Beitzel’s burst with a 13-0 run that turned the potential upset into a runaway win.
Kawhi Leonard had 21 points and 11 rebounds while Billy White chipped in with his own double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds. The Aztecs committed only four turnovers and outrebounded Northern Colorado by 12.
San Diego State just put an exclamation point on their best season in 90 years, but they will need Leonard to stay on pace when they met the Owls.
Temple are led by a balanced attack, with five players averaging double figures in scoring and at least nine players playing a minimum of ten-plus minutes per contest. Moore leads the team in scoring at 14.9 points per contest and he scored 17 of his 23 in the second half against Penn State, while his 15-footer put the Owls ahead, 62-61, with 1:10 to go. Big man Lavoy Allen, who is second in scoring at 11.8, finished the game with just three points, but snatched 11 rebounds.
The Aztecs have a small size advantage over the Owls, but that will just be enough to contain Allen.
The odds makers have the San Diego State Aztecs as a -6 point favorite with an over/under of 125.
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Prediction: San Diego is a team on a mission, and I expect that determination to carry them to the Sweet 16.
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