ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- After having cruised past their first two opponents in the Atlantic 10 Basketball Championship Tournament, Temple had to battle to the wire in the finals before edging Richmond, 56-52, Sunday to claim the Owls' third straight conference title.

Temple junior forward Lavoy Allen noted how his team had never been picked in pre-season polls to win the title in any of the past three seasons -- and each year had proven prognosticators wrong.“We found a way to

come together as a team and this year was the toughest out of the last three title games. The league was tough," said Allen, whose 11 rebounds led all players.

Temple guard Juan Fernandez, named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, scored a game-high 18 points and his backcourt mate, Ryan Brooks, tossed in an even dozen, none more important than his four free throws in the final minute to thwart a valiant Richmond comeback.

"Richmond did a good job in the second half. We were a pretty lucky team at the end,” Fernandez said.

Temple (29-5) had been the top seed in the tourney and played that way in the first two games, easily dispatching St. Bonaventure, 69-51, and then eliminating Rhode Island, 57-44

With 12 minutes left in the game, Brooks launched a three-pointer that tantalizingly swirled around the rim for about two seconds before finally settling through the net, giving Temple a commanding 44-32 lead and a leg up on a third straight double-digit win in this tournament.

But third-seeded Richmond -- which had knocked off second-seed Xavier, 89-85, in the semi-finals -- had other ideas, battling back with some tenacious defense and finally tying the game with a minute to play on a nifty put-back on a missed trey by Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Kevin Anderson, who led Richmond with 14 points. Down by two with seven seconds to play, senior guard David Gonzalez tried to add to his nine points but missed on a three-pointer and Richmond was forced to foul.

"We scrapped, competed and fought till the end," said Richmond head coach Chris Mooney. "This is the program we have become, one we can be proud of every time we take the court. Win or lose, I couldn’t be more proud of our guys.”

Their gutsy play against 17th-ranked Temple following Saturday's overtime win over 24th-ranked Xavier earned Richmond (26-8) a berth in the NCAA Tournament along with the Owls and Xavier (24-7).

Not surprisingly, all five members of the All-Championship Team came from the league's three NCAA Tournament bound teams: Allen and Fernandez from Temple; Anderson and Gonzalvez from Richmond; and Xavier guard Jordan Crawford.

Crawford, you may recall, was the player who apparently dunked over LeBron James during a shoot-around at LeBron's skill academy this past summer. Nike allegedly did all it could to keep the video of this feat out of the public domain.