Temple falls to Richmond, 58-54, in A-10 semifinals

ATLANTIC CITY - So much for the four-peat.

Temple hoped its trip here would end with a fourth consecutive Atlantic Ten Conference tournament title. But Richmond turned out to be an impassable roadblock.

The Spiders took a 58-54 victory over the 24th-ranked Owls in Saturday's A-10 semifinal at Boardwalk Hall.

In the process, Temple (25-7) had its run of 10 consecutive tourney victories snapped. The loss also denied the Owls a fourth consecutive automatic bid for the NCAA tournament. But as one of the nation's top programs, Temple is certain to receive an at-large bid when the selections are announced Sunday.

Richmond (26-7), which avenged a 73-53 regular-season loss to Temple, advances to Sunday's 1 p.m. final against Dayton, a 64-61 semifinal winner over St. Joseph's. The tourney champion will nab the A-10 automatic bid.

"There were a lot of sad faces in the locker room," Temple power forward Lavoy Allen said. "I would love to play tomorrow. But unfortunately, we are not playing. We just have to put this behind us."

Forgetting about Saturday's performance might be a good idea.

For the first time since losing at Duke on Feb. 23, the Owls really missed their two injured starters in 6-foot-11 center Micheal Eric (season-ending fractured right kneecap) and 6-6 swingman Scootie Randall (hairline fracture in right foot).

Due to early foul trouble for Allen and sophomore forward Rahlir Jefferson, Temple was forced to play with five guards during one stretch in the first half. But the real problem occurred after intermission.

That's when the Owls, who shot 35 percent, had huge scoring lapses.

Temple's first drought came when it went 6 minutes, 13 seconds without making a field goal. Reserve guard Khalif Wyatt ended that drought when his three-point play pulled the Owls within 53-50 with 6:06 left.

The killer came after Temple junior guard Ramone Moore's basket put Temple up by 54-53 with 5:02 remaining.

The Owls went on to miss their final six shots and committed two turnovers en route to being held scoreless the rest of the way.

One of those turnovers came with Richmond clinging to a 55-54 lead with 31 seconds remaining. Trying to draw a foul, Wyatt initiated contact with Richmond forward Kevin Smith while pump-faking near the three-point line. Following a no-call, Wyatt lost the ball to Smith, who went on to make a pair of foul shots two seconds later.

"I was proud that we went down a little bit and came back, found a way to take a one-point lead with five minutes to go," said Temple coach Fran Dunphy, whose squad made just three of its last 19 field-goal attempts. "Then it was just we had three or four possessions that we were a little bit hurried on. Give Richmond credit for that.

"We probably tried some things that - we probably didn't trust in one another quite as much as we have in the past, and we came up a little short."

Junior point guard Juan Fernandez missed two of the last five shots. He also failed to convert the front end of a one-and-one from the foul line with his team trailing by three points and 17 seconds left.

For the game, Fernandez made just 3 of 17 field-goal attempts - including 1 for 7 on three-pointers - to score seven points. He did, however, finish with a career-high 10 assists and tied a career high with seven rebounds.

On most of his tries, Fernandez was forced to take bad shots because his teammates were unable to get open.

"Their defense kind of leads to that," he said. "They play a special kind of defense, and today I think we didn't do a good job.

"And plus, they played up-tempo. We [normally] manage our game pretty well. We couldn't do it tonight."