Temple quietly makes easy work of Fordham

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - We missed you last night at the Izod Center.

The same Meadowlands facility that witnessed the unbridled insanity of the New Jersey Devils' winning two of their three Stanley Cups was a sea of empty seats for visiting Temple's win over Fordham.

At times, it was so quiet, you could almost hear Jimmy Hoffa stirring.

Temple matched the apathy in the stands to start the game, but eventually the Owls got their legs under them and rolled to a 70-51 victory in the Atlantic 10 opener for both teams.

The box score will list the crowd at 2,178. It was closer to 500, not counting the band and cheerleaders.

"I think it affected us a little bit in the beginning," said Temple guard Ramone Moore, who had 15 points. "I told the guys in the beginning that it's just going to be us. This is a big arena and there's not going to be too many people in here. You just have to play through those type of situations. You never know in any given game what the attendance will be like. You just have to go out and play basketball and get it done."

Micheal Eric broke out of a mini-slump with 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Juan Fernandez added 15 points to lead Temple (10-3).

It was the first career double-double for Eric, a junior from Nigeria who prepped at Church Farm School in Exton. Perhaps just as important, Eric and the rest of his inside mates neutralized Fordham sophomore forward Chris Gaston, who came into the game averaging more than 15 points and 12 boards.

"We saw that as a challenge," Eric said. "Me, Lavoy [Allen] and everybody on the team. Coach told us to box out as a team, and that's what we did. You don't want him to get any extra offensive rebounds to boost his stats and build momentum for his team."

Gaston, who entered the week third in the nation in rebounding, had only five boards and eight points. Both are season lows. Brenton Butler, Fordham's leading scorer at 17.4 per game, had eight points on 3-for-15 shooting.

"They understand that Gaston is one of the best players in our league and they wanted to show well against him," said Temple coach Fran Dunphy. "I thought we did a good job on him . . . he's a good basketball player. I'm thrilled that we kept him to a minimum."

Fordham (6-7) came out strong and built a seven-point lead with 7:58 left in the first half. Temple tightened things up on the defensive perimeter, closed out the half on a 13-0 run, and Fordham was never heard from again. Call it the silence of the Rams.

D'oh.

"Fordham was ready to go," Dunphy said. "[Head coach] Tom [Pecora] had them ready to go. They were slicing us up a little bit. They made shots early. We were foolish on the offensive end a couple times where we turned it over and gave them some easy baskets."

Pecora is in his first season at Fordham after nine at Hofstra. Though he has a long way to go, his Rams aren't the doormat they were last year when they went 2-26. They stunned St. John's last month, but didn't have enough gas to run with Temple last night. And they got no juice from the crowd.

That 13-0 Temple spurt at the end of the half eventually swelled into a 33-4 romp. All that was left, in some parts of the country that is, was to see whether the Owls could cover the 16 1/2-point spread. They did.

Last night was the first game for the Owls since a near-upset of Villanova last week left a sour taste in the beaks of the Cherry-and-White faithful. But Temple did what good teams do. It took out its frustration on the next opponent. For Eric, it was personal vindication. In the prior two games, he'd committed seven fouls and scored five points. Last night, he was the best big man on the court.

"It'd be great if he could do that every night. I'd be thrilled by that," Dunphy said. "We do need that. He really rebounded the ball well. You see that Lavoy didn't have a lot of rebounds [two]. I think Mike stole a lot of his. He was really aggressive. He did a real good job."

In a way, last night's sparse crowd was a little bit like an NCAA Tournament opening-round game in which the marquee matchup isn't until later in the night. Crowd or no crowd, there is a task at hand, and the Owls did theirs convincingly.

"I wasn't sure what kind of crowd would be here," Dunphy said. "Obviously, their students are not here and that certainly would affect it. But we're used to, for example, playing in Orlando [in a Thanksgiving tournament] where there wasn't a lot of people and we had to bring all our own energy. But that's OK. It's a basketball game. We need to be out there, and we need to focus on what our job is and not what the outside issues are."

Temple fans do have a chance to show their support at the Owls next game, on Sunday against Saint Louis at the Liacouras Center. With a 2 o'clock start, the game should be over before the Eagles-Packers game kicks off sometime after 4:30 . . . The win was the 1,750th in Temple history. Only Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Duke and Syracuse have more.