Ice Cold: Sloppy play mars M. Hoops loss to Owls

Turnovers and poor shooting doomed the quakers last night. In a game where both teams suffered from ice-cold shooting hands, the chorus to a popular Red Hot Chili Peppers' song offers the best explanation for Temple's narrow victory over the Penn men's basketball team last night. "Give it away, give it away, give it away now." Although both squads combined to shoot below 30 percent from the field, the Quakers fell because they committed 16 turnovers -- four times as many as the Owls. "The only thing that saved the game for us was we had only four turnovers," Temple guard Pepe Sanchez said. Temple coach John Chaney's self-described "well-oiled machine" somehow kept the wheels from falling off by committing a season-low in miscues, despite missing its first 12 shots from three-point range. Penn, on the other hand, only exacerbated its shooting woes by repeatedly forcing passes into double teams, only to see them glance off freshman Ugonna Onyekwe's fingertips or get knocked away by defenders in front of center Geoff Owens. But even good Penn passes were mishandled. A prime example occurred with six minutes remaining in the game, when Quakers guard Michael Jordan took his eyes off a David Klatsky pass on a fast break and fumbled the ball out of bounds. "If I didn't lose the ball at halfcourt with no pressure, then maybe we get a shot out of that," Jordan said. "We've got to do the little things to help us win the game." And Penn certainly did not do the little things against Temple. Four Quakers committed at least three turnovers, while no Owl gave up possession more than once. Point guard Pepe Sanchez epitomized the plight of the Owls last night. The Temple senior didn't turn the ball over once, despite sinking just one of his eight shots. Meanwhile, Klatsky -- whom Sanchez guarded for most of the last three minutes -- had a vastly different game. Despite hitting two of his three shots from behind the arc, the Penn freshman committed more turnovers last night (four) than he had in his last eight games (three). Klatsky seemed especially frustrated by Temple's unique matchup zone defense, evident midway through the first half when an Owls' trap caused the Penn guard to throw the ball away -- right to Sanchez. Not surprisingly, Temple's matchup zone facilitated the Quakers' mistakes all night. "When you play against the zone, you play against a lot of traffic and you turn it over a lot," Sanchez said. Temple forced 20 turnovers against La Salle on Tuesday and 23 two weeks ago against Rhode Island, but, in a low-scoring game like last night's, Penn's 16 miscues were magnified. Although the Owls only scored five total points in a seven-minute span in the first half in which they forced seven turnovers, Temple eventually turned those 16 turnovers into 12 points. And in such a low-scoring game, those 12 points were vital -- accounting for more than a quarter of Temple's total. Part of the reason for Penn's high turnover total was Temple's presence inside. Owls center Kevin Lyde grabbed 11 boards, blocked two shots and more than doubled his previous career high with a Sanchez-esque five steals. "My teammates talked to me and I saw where I could jump in the lane and get the steal," Lyde said. Lyde was not the only Owl to benefit from the Quakers' gifts. Forward Mark Karcher amassed three steals, while massive sophomore Ron Rollerson had a block and a steal in just five minutes. "You know they're going to force turnovers," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. However, poor shooting prevented Penn from overcoming those mistakes. Quakers guards Matt Langel and Jordan combined to shoot just 3-for-22 from three-point range, while Penn shot below 30 percent in each half. "They're such a good defensive team, I'm not surprised by the shooting percentages and how difficult it was to score," Dunphy said. But the high number of Penn turnovers in a slow-paced game was a surprise -- and, ultimately, a costly one. It was the team that held onto the ball -- Temple -- that held the lead when the final buzzer sounded at the Apollo.

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