PHILADELPHIA - Lavoy Allen became just the fifth player in Temple's storied basketball history to score 1,000 points and grab 1,000 rebounds for his career and Coach Fran Dunphy won his 100th game for the Cherry and White as the Owls knocked off the La Salle Explorers 71-67 at the Tom Gola Arena on Wednesday night.
Allen's seven rebounds put him at 1,002 for his career. He needs just 41 boards to eclipse John Baum's school record.
The Pennsbury High product scored 14 points and rejected two shots in 37 minutes of action.
La Salle's Aaric Murray paced all scorers with 22 points on 8 of 21 shooting. He also connected on 4 of 8 of his long range attempts and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.
Juan Fernandez made his return to the starting lineup after a two game sojourn on the bench. The junior still looked less than 100 percent as he had some trouble keeping La Salle's quick guards in front of him.
The Argentinian scored seven points on 2 of 5 three-point shooting before fouling after 21 minutes on the court.
Khalif Wyatt continued his torrid scoring stretch, leading the Owls in scoring with 18 points off the bench. He connected on three of his five three-point attempts and was 6 of 10 from the floor overall.
Wyatt's three-pointer with 5:58 remaining in the first half point the Owls on top for good, 21-19, and ignited a 10-2 run that gave the Cherry and White a 28-21 lead going into the break.
The Owls recovered from a very slow start to shoot 46.2 percent from the field.
Ramone Moore was a ghost during the first half as he scored no points after missing all three of his field goal attempts. Temple's leading scorer did not get onto the scoresheet until a pair of made free throws with 18:18 left in the second half.
Moore finished the game with four points and five assists.
The Owls led by 13 points, 41-28, after a Scootie Randall three-pointer with 16:47 remaining in the game. The junior scored 14 points on 5 of 10 shooting and extended his double-digit scoring streak to four games.
La Salle then went on a 10-4 run that got them to within seven points, 45-38. Murray hit two three-pointers during the run while former Temple recruit Tyreke Duren capped it with a layup. The freshmen played all 40 minutes and scored 13 points. He did commit six of La Salle's 16 turnovers which led directly to 17 points for the Owls.
Temple pushed the lead back up to 10 on a Lavoy Allen layup with 9:23 remaining but the pesky Explorers continued to hang around as Duren scored four of La Salle's next six points to bring them to within four with 7:57 remaining.
Temple took their biggest lead of the game, 61-47, on an Allen jumper off of an assist from Wyatt. La Salle chipped into the lead once again, largely due to some questionable ball handling by the Owls, but never truly threatened. Every time the La Salle scored a basket and set up the full-court press Temple easily broke it for an uncontested layup.
The Explorers ultimately finished the game with a 20-10 run to make the score respectable.
Temple shot 49 percent for the game and, more importantly, converted 14 of 16 attempts (87.5 percent) from the charity stripe. The Owls' bench outscored La Salle's 26-6 as T.J. DiLeo and Rahlir Jefferson scored four points apiece to aide Wyatt's effort.
La Salle was without senior guard Reuben Guillandeaux as he was held out of the game with the flu. Freshman Sam Mills started in his place and scored 13 points. The point guard played 39 minutes and connected on all three of his shots from distance.
The Owls are back in action on Saturday afternoon as they will host the University of Rhode Island Rams in a nationally televised on ESPN2 contest.