Temple 60, Charlotte 45

3/14/2008 9:17 PM

By TOM CANAVAN
AP Sports Writer

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -Mark Tyndale had 20 points and 15 rebounds and Temple beat Charlotte 60-45 in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament Friday night, moving the Owls to within a win of their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2001.

Second-seeded Temple (20-12) will have to get past Philadelphia archrival Saint Joseph's (21-11) in the championship game. The fifth-seeded Hawks stunned top-seeded Xavier 61-53 in the first semifinal at Boardwalk Hall in this casino resort.

Temple and Saint Joseph's split two games this season, with each winning by a point. Temple took the most recent game 57-56 on March 2.

Chris Clark added 13 points for Temple, which never trailed in winning its sixth straight game.

Leemire Goldwire had 18 points and Lamont Mack 11 for Charlotte (20-13), which rallied from an 18-point deficit to upset third-seeded Massachusetts in the quarterfinals on Thursday night.

The 49ers tried to stage another comeback on Friday after falling behind 36-21 with 17:30 to play.

Charlotte chipped away at the lead over the next 10 minutes and got to within 44-39 on a 3-pointer by Goldwire.

However, Ryan Brooks hit a jumper to ignite an 11-3 spurt that put the game away. Tyndale had a 3-pointer in the run that saw Charlotte miss five straight shots and turn the ball over once in seeing its five-game winning streak snapped.