Box Score Feb. 23, 2008
Final Stats
Philadelphia, Pa. - Fordham senior guard Marcus Stout entered the Temple game 34 three-pointers short of the career school for three-pointers made. Over the first five minutes of the game, it looked like he was going to break the record against the Owls. In the first five minutes, Stout connected on his first four attempts from behind the arc en route to a season-high 31 points and the Rams withheld a late Owl comeback, including a missed Temple three-pointer at the buzzer, to pull out a 78-76 Atlantic 10 win at the Liacouras Center.
Winning on the road in the Atlantic 10 is not easy, especially at Temple who had lost only one conference home game this season, but the Rams have now won two of their past three conference road games, with the lone loss an overtime decision at Saint Louis last Wednesday.
With the win, the Rams improve to 11-13 overall, 5-7 in the Atlantic 10, while Temple falls to 14-12 overall, 7-5 in the conference.
Bryant Dunston contributed with his usual solid game, recording his fifth straight and Atlantic 10-leading 12th double-double of the year. Dunston finished with 12 points and ten rebounds while also adding four assists and three blocks. With his ten points, the senior forward moves ahead of Jim Cunningham and into fourth place on the Fordham all-time scoring list with 1,749 career points. He is now 27 points behind Joe Paterno (1985-89) who sits in third place on the Fordham all-time scoring list with 1,776 points.
The Rams led by as many as 15 in the second half, 60-45, before Temple rallied to tie the game at 68 on a Ryan Brooks jumper with 4:20 remaining.
Just under two minutes later, Stout was fouled and connected on a pair of free throws to put the Rams up for good, 70-68, and two more free throws from Brenton Butler boosted the Fordham lead to four, 72-68, with 2:19 left but the game was far from over.
A Mark Tyndale free throw made it a three-point game, 72-69, eight seconds later before Stout tripped-in a Dunston miss with 1:35 remaining to up the lead to five, 74-69.
Brooks hit one of two free throws 13 seconds later before Stout gave Fordham a six-point lead, 76-70, with two charity shots with 38 seconds remaining. A Brooks lay-up 12 ticks later cut the Fordham advantage back to four, 76-72, before Stout hit one of two free throws with 24 seconds left to put Fordham up, 77-72.
Lavoy Allen was fouled while attempting to grab an offensive rebound for the Owls and hit both of his free throws to make it a 77-74 game with 15 seconds left. Temple then fouled Stout again and he made one of his two charity shots to keep it a two possession game, 78-74, three seconds later.
Tyndale drove for a dunk with eight seconds left and the Rams turned the ball over on the ensuing inbounds pass, giving Temple one last chance with 4.5 seconds remaining.
The Owls eventually got the ball to Tyndale but his off-balanced three-pointer at the buzzer hit the front of the rim and bounced away.
It was "Back to the Beach Day" at the Liacouras Center and both teams came out shooting like it was a hot summer day. The Owls connected on their first five shots while the Rams hit six three-pointers over the first five minutes to build an eight-point lead, 20-12, following a Stout three-pointer with 14:23 left in the half.
The Owls would cut the Fordham lead back to three, 25-22, on a Chris Clark three-pointer with 10:45 remaining before the Rams used a 15-6 run, led by eight points from Dunston, to take a 12-point lead, 40-26, with 4:51 left before intermission.
Temple then scored eight straight points to make it a 40-34 game with just over a minute left in the period before Herb Tanner gave the Rams a 43-34 halftime lead with a three-pointer with 34 seconds left.
After the Owls cut the Fordham lead to eight, 44-36, in the first minute of the second half, the Rams used a 16-9 spurt to take its biggest lead of the day, 60-45, following a Sebastian Greene three-point play with 12:05 left.
Temple then outscored Fordham 23-8 over the next eight minutes to tie the game at 68 with 4:20 remaining.
Stout shot 10-for-15 from the field, including 5-for-9 from behind the three-point line while Butler also finished in double figures for the Rams with 12 points.
The Rams will next be in action on Wednesday, February 27th as they host La Salle University in the Rose Hill Gym at 8:00 p.m. or 30 minutes following the women's game which begins at 6:00 p.m.
Notes
The Rams have now won three of their past four in Philadelphia after breaking a 34-game losing streak in the city in 2006...Temple now leads the all-time series, 34-13, but Fordham has taken four of the past five meetings...Dunston's 12 double-doubles are the most for a Ram since Sanford Jenkins recorded eleven in the 1991-92 season...He now has 37 double-doubles over his career...Stout's ten field goals ties the season-high for the Rams, tying him with Dunston who connected on ten field goals against Saint Louis...Stout's previous season-high was 27 at Georgetown on December 31st...Dunston's ten rebounds brings his career total to 947, good for fourth place on the Fordham all-time rebounding list, 21 behind Bill McCadney...He has recorded double figures in rebounds in 12 of the past 14 games...Dunston's three blocked shots in the game brings his Fordham career-record total to 282...Dunston is averaging 17.6 ppg and 11.6 rpg over the past five games...Stout's 31 points brings his career total to 1,643, good for seventh place on the all-time list.
