Temple falls in Atlantic Ten opener to UMass, 77-71

ATLANTIC CITY - Temple's run in the Atlantic Ten Conference tournament lasted less than a blink of an eye. So instead of a semifinal game, the Owls will spend Saturday wondering where they will be placed in the NCAA tournament on Selection Sunday.

Perhaps the Owls were distracted by the recent news that they would become an all-sports Big East conference member in 2013. Or maybe Khalif Wyatt being held out of the starting lineup for showing up late at an undisclosed team function affected the players.

Whatever it was, the top-seeded Owls will be watching the rest of the tournament they were expected to win.

Eighth-seeded Massachusetts upset Temple, 77-71, on Friday in a quarterfinal at the Boardwalk Hall.

The 21st-ranked Owls (24-7) were going for their fourth title in five years. Instead, they failed to win a tournament game for the first time since 2007.

The Minutemen (22-10), on the other hand, advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 2001 and will face fourth-seeded St. Bonaventure on Saturday at 1 p.m.

"It hurts a lot," said Temple's Ramone Moore, a fifth-year senior guard. "Me and Juan [Fernandez] are seniors. This is out last go-round [in the A-10 tournament]. We wanted it as bad as anybody.

"It just hurts that we couldn't come out on top for our team."

While an upset, the outcome wasn't totally surprising. The Owls needed overtime to outlast the pesky Minutemen, 90-88, on Feb. 29 at the Liacouras Center.

UMass guard Jesse Morgan said Friday that pushing Temple to overtime in that earlier game gave the Minutemen confidence.

"We knew we could come and play tough and compete with them," said Morgan, an Olney High product.

The 6-foot-5 sophomore and backcourt mate Chaz Williams combined to score 41 of the Minutemen's points. Morgan made 3 of 4 three-pointers en route to finishing with a game-high 21 points against his hometown team. Williams, a 5-foot-9 redshirt sophomore point guard, finished with 20 points, a game-high 10 assists and four steals.

The duo also combined to score the decisive foul shots after Temple closed the gap to 73-71 with 28 seconds remaining.

After being fouled by Wyatt, Williams made a pair of foul shots. Then, with 14 seconds left, Morgan grabbed a defensive rebound of Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson's missed layup. After being fouled by Fernandez, his foul shots gave UMass a 77-71 lead.

The Owls went on to miss their final three shots.

But it can be argued that Temple showed a lot of grit just to make things close late in the game. After scoring the final two point of the first half, the Minutemen opened the second half with a 15-0 run to take a 46-36 lead with 15 minutes, 56 seconds left.

The Owls went on to regain the lead, 58-57, with 8:50 left and opened up a four-point cushion after Fernandez' three-pointer 47 seconds later.

"I think there were a lot of mistakes down the stretch, a lot of turnovers," said Moore, who finished the game with 14 points, four assists and a game-high six turnovers. "Guys convert on the other end. In these types of games, you got to work through it down the stretch. We made too many mistakes."

The Owls went on to make just four of their remaining 13 shots attempts and commit four costly turnovers. Temple finished the game with 22 turnovers.

Wyatt finished with a team-high 15 points despite being benched for the first 9:36 for being late for a team function. He left the game with 17:09 left after injuring his right knee. After going to locker room to be examined, Wyatt returned two minutes later.