St. Joe's shocks No. 5 Owls at Palestra

Temple had a chance to tie as the clock ran out, but St. Joseph's pulled off an enormous Big 5 upset. Jubilant basketball fans stormed the Palestra floor last night after the home team won its biggest game of the year. No, the Penn Quakers did not clinch the Ivy League title. It was the St. Joseph's Hawks who defeated No. 5 Temple, 62-59. The victory was the Hawks' (12-14, 1-3 Big 5) first in four attempts in Big 5 play this season and St. Joe's coach Phil Martelli's first win in his 10 attempts against legendary Owls coach John Chaney. "I love Philadelphia fans," Martelli began his press conference after being mobbed on the court. "What we wanted to try to do was give the players a special moment. I told them that if we played like the way we talked about the other day, they'd be the lead story on SportsCenter, and now they will be. "And it's not about me -- I wanted it for my team." St. Joe's converted 35 percent of its shots from behind the three-point arc to defeat Temple's (22-5, 3-1) vaunted matchup zone from the outside. The biggest shot of the game came off the hands of Hawks senior Tim Brown with 2:03 remaining, putting the home team up, 60-57. Temple's Mark Karcher hit a jumper 26 seconds later to bring the score to 60-59, but that was as close as the Owls would get. "It was a tough game," said Karcher, who had 16 points. "We struggled the whole game, and they outplayed us. It was a wake-up call -- we knew it was coming." Karcher missed a jumper with 40 seconds left, and Hawks guard Na'im Crenshaw made two free throws with 16.7 seconds on the clock to provide the final margin. With St. Joe's fans standing in anticipation of victory, Karcher attempted an off-balance trey just seconds before the buzzer -- but it went long, and the crowd erupted. "It seemed like it was in slow motion -- that last shot," said Martelli, who will give his team off from practice today. "Yeah, it was the shot we wanted," Chaney said. "It was probably the only pattern that we had that worked, and they worked it well. We got jammed up on one side with Quincy [Wadley] being doubled, but he finally got it back to Pepe [Sanchez], who hit Mark in the corner who sat down on it. "Of course, he didn't make it, but there are games we're going to have like that where when you depend so much on your shooting. But Martelli's team played extremely well." The victory snapped a four-game skid for St. Joe's and ended the Owls' 13-game winning streak. It also touched off quite a loud celebration. "Aw man, it's something to have the crowd rush you like that," said Hawks guard Marvin O'Connor, who led all scorers with 20 points. Early on, it was apparent that the Owls were not playing like the team that had defeated No. 1 Cincinnati just a week ago. Temple point guard Pepe Sanchez committed an uncharacteristic three turnovers in the first half. And despite outshooting the Hawks 44 percent to 35 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, the Owls found themselves down 35-30 at the break. "We didn't play the game the way I'd like to see it," Chaney said. "I think Pepe must have had three or four turnovers, and trying to do the wrong thing with the ball. That was bad, and that is uncharacteristic of him. "Bad judgment. But he's so good that he sees guys and he says, 'Well, I'm going to look at them until they get open.' That's bullshit. You can't look at a guy [defender] and say, 'Shazam' -- disappear." St. Joe's extended its lead to 47-34 with 13:51 remaining following a three-pointer by Bill Phillips, and the Owls appeared to be on the verge of folding. But Temple modified its defense to a full-court press and forced four turnovers in the next five minutes. With the Owls fans on their feet, Temple center Lamont Barnes hit a jumper from the left baseline with 8:25 remaining to knot the score at 49. Martelli recounted the ensuing play that gave St. Joe's the lead for good, 51-49. "What happened then was a dribble drive by Marvin [O'Connor]. That helped us out a lot. We took the biggest punch they could give us and came back," he said. Damian Reid and Crenshaw had ten points apiece for the Hawks, who were 11-of-32 from three-point range. The Owls were led by Karcher's 16 and 11 more from Lynn Greer. As a team, however, they hit only 5-for-18 from behind the arc. Temple, much to Chaney's chagrin, also failed to exploit the fact that St. Joe's was in the double-bonus with nine minutes left. The Owls shot just two free throws the rest of the way. "For every foul, we're shooting two, and we should have been at the line every time down the floor. And we weren't," Chaney said. "That to me is the most annoying thing in all of basketball, when I see people who play with their ass and not with their head." St. Joe's hosted this Atlantic 10 meeting at the Palestra -- its fourth "home" game of the season in Penn's fabled arena. The Hawks had previously defeated South Carolina at the Palestra, while falling to Rutgers and La Salle. The excitement of the game vastly overshadowed the memorable halftime ceremony, in which seven players were inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame. The honorees included Villanova star and NBA Hall of Famer Paul Arizin, La Salle great Tom Gola -- who is also in the Basketball Hall of Fame and for whom the Explorers' arena was recently named -- and Penn's own Ernie Beck. Beck, the Quakers' all-time leading scorer, notched 1,827 points over three seasons at Penn and led the Red and Blue to a 62-21 record in his time in West Philadelphia. Though he later went on to play for the Philadelphia Warriors, he maintains a special place in his heart for Penn basketball and the Palestra. "I don't know how many of the young people here remember us, but it's nice to be back in the Palestra," Beck said. "It's the same roof and the same place. I love the Palestra -- great place to play basketball."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.