City 6 Wrap: TU, Joe's, La Salle, Drexel All Win

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With most city teams regularly in action on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and with just five weeks left until tournament time, we're going to start doing twice-weekly wraps to catch up with everyone in the City Six.

Temple, St. Joe's, La Salle and Drexel were all in action on Wednesday night, and all came away with a victory. We're still work-shopping how this is going to look, so expect these to evolve quite a bit over the next month as we get a better handle on it.

Game caps and look aheads after the jump...

Temple 78, Fordham 60
Despite some struggles early -- trading the lead with Fordham three times in the opening 11 minutes --  Temple would take an eight point lead into the locker room thanks to 16 first half points from Khalif Wyatt. Wyatt, who scored the Owls' first 10 points of the ballgame, finished with 24 on the night. It was his conference-high eighth performance of 20 or more this season.

Wyatt was bested only by backcourt mate Ramone Moore who scored 20 of his game-high 25 in the second half. Wednesday was the second time in the last two weeks that both Wyatt and Moore have scored 20 or more in the same game.

In his fourth game back from injury, Temple senior center Michael Eric set a new career-high in blocks with five in 14 minutes of play. Temple has not allowed more than 60 points to any opponent since his return.

The win advances the Owls to 16-5 on the season and 5-2 on the A10. It is the Owls season-high fifth straight win on the year. Temple's next game will see them on the road this Saturday at Rhode Island. They return to the Liacouras Center next Wednesday night to take on George Washington.

St. Joseph's 70, Richmond 60
The Hawks bounced back from their drubbing at Temple over the weekend to pick up a 10-point win over the Richmond Spiders on Wednesday night.

Five Hawks -- Carl Jones, Langston Galloway, Daryus Quarles, Ronald Roberts, Jr. and C.J. Aiken -- finished in double figures, with Jones leading the way with 16.

St. Joe's took only a two point lead into the break, but would jump out on an 13-3 run to secure themselves a comfortable lead for (most) of the rest of the ballgame.

The road win was key for an SJU team who played strong out of conference, but stumbled badly in the month of January. Since Dec. 28, the Hawks have won just four of their last 10. The win moves them to 14-9 on the season and 4-4 in the A10. They are next scheduled to meet A10 leader and Big 5 rival La Salle at the Palestra at 12 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

La Salle 85, Charlotte 72
Speaking of the Explorers, they cruised past the Charlotte 49ers on Wednesday night thanks to big nights from sophomore Tyreek Duren (22 points) and freshman Jerrell Wright (18 points). Two other Explorers -- Sam Mills and Earl Pettis -- would finish in double figures.

And so, the La Salle Explorers, picked in certain early season polls to be one of the worst teams in the Atlantic 10, are now 17-6 overall and 6-2 in conference play, a record which now puts them in sole share of first place in the A10.

The Explorers, as we mentioned, are due up for a meeting with the St. Joseph's Hawks this Saturday.

Drexel 61, Northeastern 53
Meanwhile, Bruiser Flint's Drexel Dragons keep winning basketball games. Their 61-53 win over Northeastern -- featuring a career-high 25 points from freshman Damien Lee -- moves them to 18-5 on the year and league best 10-2 in the CAA.

Are the Drexel Dragons the best team in the city? Who knows -- we lack head-to-head matchups to settle the debate.

Maybe we'll become those guys who start pounding the drum for a City 6 round robin.

Yeah, we can do that.

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