Temple holds Quakers to 42 in victory

Penn shoots justPenn shoots just22.8 percentPenn shoots just22.8 percentfrom the field A good defense beats a good offense. It is one of the axioms of sports. But last night at the Palestra, Penn and Temple offered proof of something else -- a bad offense beats a worse offense. This was an ugly game. The unofficial Big Five matchup had enough bricks to begin construction on The Apollo, the Owls' future home arena. Shooting percentages read like the results of yesterday's New Hampshire primary. With all precincts reporting, Temple prevailed over the Quakers by a 53-42 count. The Owls' 36.2 percent shooting performance was enough to beat Penn's abysmal 22.8 percent effort from the floor. Actually, Temple did manage to shoot relatively well in the first half, when it built a 32-18 halftime lead that was large enough to withstand a second-half run from the Quakers. "We did not play well in the first half," said Penn coach Fran Dunphy. "It took us a while in the second half to get our defense turned up a notch." As a team, the Owls shot 48 percent in the opening 20 minutes. Center Marc Jackson scored 10 of his game-high 16 points in the first period, when he repeatedly got good position in the paint and converted a series of layups and short jumpers. The Quakers, on the other hand, struggled throughout the half. Temple's famed matchup zone prevented Penn from working the ball inside and getting any easy points. Instead, the Quakers swung the ball around on the perimeter trying to find a good shot. "We probably needed to get it in the middle more and attack the basket once we got it in the middle," Dunphy said. "We did not do a good job of that." Penn was forced to rely on the outside shot. The Quakers hoisted up a record 38 three-pointers, breaking the old team record of 37 against Florida in the 1994 NCAA tournament. Sophomore guard Garett Kreitz put up 12 threes himself. But unfortunately for Penn, only Kreitz, who hit on five of his attempts, had any success from outside. The rest of the squad went 3-of-26 from downtown. Perhaps most surprising, senior swingman Ira Bowman, the team's leading scorer, totaled only 4 points and made just one of 11 field goal attempts. "We had a number of open looks," Dunphy said. "We didn't make shots. I think that's a credit to Temple's defense. What would appear sometimes to be an opening many times is not." But early in the second half, Penn finally showed some signs of life. After a Jackson layup gave the Owls a 17-point lead with just under 18 minutes to play, the Quakers put together a run that got them back into the game. Actually, "run" might not be the right word for it. Penn scratched out eight unanswered points -- two Kreitz threes and two Cedric Laster free throws -- over a five minute span that cut the Temple lead to nine with 12:05 left to play. The Quakers' 3-for-7 shooting from the beginning of the second half to that point might not have been incendiary, but it was definitely an improvement on their 7-of-30 first half performance. "At halftime we knew how poorly we were shooting," Penn center Tim Krug said. "We hoped we would just come out and things would change. We figured you can't play that badly and continue in the second half." The Quakers' comeback continued, slowly but surely. A Donald Moxley three-pointer from the left corner brought them to within eight, and minutes later, another Kreitz three -- this one launched a few feet behind the arc -- cut the deficit to three. Penn's run was keyed by defense. From Jackson's layup with 17:58 remaining to Kreitz's third three of the half with 6:04 left, Temple scored only two points. The Quakers double- and triple-teamed Jackson once he got the ball, and the rest of the Owls were ice cold -- as a team they shot 22.7 percent in the second half. "I thought we did a pretty good job of neutralizing Jackson," Dunphy said. "We banged him a lot. We doubled down quite often. I was pleased with the job we did on him." "They played extremely well in the second half," said Chaney of Penn. "I thought Penn did a great job of playing excellent defense because we went for a stretch where we didn't see any baskets." But the Quakers could not get any closer than three. Their shooting troubles, after disappearing for a brief period, rose up again. After Kreitz brought the team within three, Penn missed 14 of its final 15 shots. Temple slowly rebuilt a double-digit lead in the final minutes, putting the Quakers away for good. Penn can take solace in the fact that the Owls usually shut everyone down. Their field-goal percentage defense (39.0) ranks 12th in the nation. Even top-ranked opponents Kansas and Villanova shot below 30 percent against Temple. But the Quakers also know that when the shots are there, they have to make them or lose. "What appeared to be open sometimes wasn't open," Bowman said. "It's just a matter of our guys making shots. We didn't do that tonight."