By Mary Cunningham
It was a great day for Temple athletics.
On the court in Philly the Owls nipped La Salle and on the grid in Louisiana they knocked off Tulane.
Quenton DeCosey (photo above) scored 19 points and Temple survived a frantic finish to edge La Salle 58-57 at the Palestra.
The Owls, ahead 56-54, had three chances to go up by four with 30 seconds left but couldn’t get a put-back to fall. Temple then missed a contested shot to tie with 11 seconds left and Josh Brown grabbed the defensive rebound and was fouled. He made two free throws with 9 seconds left, making Khalid Lewis’ 3-pointer at the buzzer meaningless.
Temple (5-3) led 35-29 at the half but the second half was tight throughout. La Salle was within 56-54 when Steve Zack made a pair of free throws with 2:03 left and the Explorers (4-4) had two possessions to tie or take the lead but missed before Brown’s clutch free throws.
Jerrell Wright had 15 points for La Salle with Jordan Price adding 13. Zack grabbed 13 rebounds.
P.J. Walker hit Romond Deloatch with an 8-yard pass at 8:39 to play, lifting Temple past Tulane 10-3 on Saturday night.
The Owls (6-6, 4-4 American Athletic) earned bowl eligibility in the season finale.
But it was a struggle where each team saw big plays — apparent scores, long gainers, interceptions, fumble recoveries for TDs — offset by penalties.
Even though Austin Jones hit only one of three field goal tries, and three players combined for 260 yards punting, Temple slowly won good field position — pinning Tulane at its 1 in the final quarter, resulting in the 25-yard game-winning drive.
