Owls secure conference tournament spot

The Owls are losers of four straight but have somehow backpedaled their way to an Atlantic 10 Conference tournament berth.

As Virginia Commonwealth came up short of an upset over Charlotte tonight, Temple officially clinched a spot in the A10 tournament. With the Owls’ record standing at (12-16, 5-8 A-10) and only one game remaining in the regular season, VCU (10-18, 3-10 A-10) was the only team that could have overtaken their spot in the tournament, but that is no longer the case after the Rams lost 63-54 to the second-place 49ers (23-4, 12-1 A-10).

Temple currently holds the 10th seed in the conference standings, and unless the Owls can knock off third-place Fordham (21-7, 11-2 A-10) on Sunday, they’ll finish either 10th or 11th. If the standings remain as is, Temple’s first round opponent would be Richmond (16-13, 6-7 A-10), a team the Owls beat by 13 earlier in the season. However, it’s possible that either George Washington (12-15, 6-7 A-10) or Xavier (12-15, 6-7 A-10) could bump up to take Richmond’s place as the 7th seed. If Temple falls to the 11th spot, they will likely take on Buter (17-11, 8-5 A-10) in the first round. The Owls are coming off a 59-54 loss at the hands of the Bulldogs just last night.

This weekend’s match-ups will go a long way in determining the seeding. The A-10 tournament begins Friday, March 8 at St. Joe’s.

Tyler Sablich can be reached at tyler.sablich@temple.edu or on Twitter @TySablich.