Temple comes up short to lowly Duquesne

THIS WASN'T a game Temple should lose.

Duquesne had lost 11 straight, including all nine in the Atlantic 10. The Dukes were 1-9 away from Pittsburgh. The win came at Appalachian State in late November. They had never won at the Liacouras Center in eight tries. And they hadn't beaten the Owls in Philadelphia since 1995. Other than that . . .

Then again, the Owls had already lost at home to Canisius and St. Bonaventure. Now, it's turned into a trifecta. The kind you don't need on your RPI profile.

The Dukes won Thursday night, 84-83, on two free throws by freshman guard Derrick Colter with 2.9 seconds left after being fouled by Dalton Pepper while making a move to the basket. Pepper nearly became the hero moments later, when his deep three-pointer from the left wing off a long inbounds pass from T.J. DiLeo bounced off the iron. Still, almost is almost.

The Owls, who played their fourth straight one-pointer, a first for the team, had been 23-4 under Fran Dunphy at home in February. They'll be at Massachusetts on Saturday, host La Salle next Thursday and then visit Charlotte, which lost here 89-88 last week, the following weekend.

Remember, this is a team that beat Syracuse in New York and nearly won at Kansas. That seems like a long time ago.

"We're not nearly good enough at this point," Dunphy said. "Right now, we're too inconsistent to even be called good. The good thing when your back's against the wall is, you should respond. We'll see."

The Owls (16-8, 5-5 A-10) couldn't get it done, despite a career-high 35 points from Khalif Wyatt, who beat Dayton on Saturday with a three with 7.1 seconds left. This time he drove left for a layup at 7.4, drew contact and completed the three-point play. But Duquesne (8-16, 1-9), which turned the ball over three times in the final 1:09 against the press and missed two free throws at 0:15, got it to Colter, who was 4-for-14 from the field and 7-for-8 at the line at that point. He dribbled to the left side of the lane, where Pepper either bumped him or was the victim of a tough whistle. It really doesn't matter now.

"I don't think a call should be made at that point in the game," said Wyatt, who also had a career-best six steals and made all 15 of his freebies. "I thought it was pretty good defense. It's a good call, I guess."

Of course, it never should have come down to that. The Owls were down, 43-37, at halftime, after trailing by as many as 11 after 13 1/2 minutes. They came back out of the locker room and went on a 17-3 run, and you figured that Duquesne was done. So naturally, the Dukes answered with a 20-6 spurt. Temple would come all the way back, but the young visitors had one last play in them. And first-year coach Jim Ferry, who took LIU Brooklyn to the NCAA Tournament last March, had a moment to savor. In their last game, Duquesne blew a double-digit lead down the stretch against Xavier.

"There was no pressure on [the Dukes] to do a great job," Dunphy said. "We talked about them being ready to do a great job. We had our chances. We put ourselves in a difficult position. It would have been a great win, in so many ways. We're not playing well enough to feel good about ourselves."

As for his perspective on the decisive call, Dunphy said he had "no idea" whether it was correct.

"I haven't seen the tape," he explained. "I was too far away to get a sense of it. There's not much we can do about it. They're three really good officials. If they blew a foul on that, then that's what it was."

The Dukes, who shoot 38 percent, shot 63.0 in the first half, 49.1 for the game. They also were 10-for-23 from the arc. They had nine more rebounds, which helped negate their six additional turnovers. Forward Quevyn Winters, another freshman, had 22 points on 8-for-9. Andre Marhold had 15 on 7-for-10, and as many rebounds.

The Owls got 15 points from Scootie Randall, the first time he's reached double digits in four games. Pepper had a season-high 13, in 18 minutes.

Wyatt is obviously terrific. But he can't always do it mostly by himself.

"Game over," Randall said. "We have a quick turnaround, road game, Massachusetts. As the season goes on, as a leader you have to take time to sit and talk to yourself about how you can help the team . . .

"You can't win them all."

Nevertheless, not all losses are necessarily equal.

"All of them are tough," Wyatt whispered. "Yeah, this was bittersweet."

And hardly anticipated.