Penn basketball loses close game to Temple after falling behind early

Penn basketball fought hard after falling behind big early, but fell short in a 70-62 loss against a superior Temple team on Saturday at the Liacouras Center.

After falling behind 21-4 early in the game, the Red and Blue (2-4) rallied and had it within two points in the game’s final minute, but were unable to complete the comeback against the Owls (6-2).

The Quakers were led by 19 points from senior forward Matt Howard and 17 from freshman forward AJ Brodeur, and Penn also got a solid game from sophomore guard Jake Silpe, who contributed five points, four assists and three steals in 20 minutes after riding the bench earlier in the season.

Temple had a balanced offensive attack, getting 14 points from sophomore Shizz Alston, 12 each from Obi Enechionyia (the star junior who was woefully inefficient, but got his points on volume) and Alani Moore (a freshman guard who also had seven assists), and 11 points from sophomore center Ernest Aflakpui.

The Owls got off to their fast start thanks to a barrage of threes and early offensive woes for the Red and Blue.

“I feel like we just didn’t come out with enough energy, and they did, and that cost us in the end,” Howard said.

The Quakers went on a 10-1 run to cut it to six, but Temple got it back to nine by halftime and a strong start to the second half for the hosts had Penn down 43-28.

The Red and Blue, however, answered back, going on an 18-7 run to make it 50-46.

“I’m proud of our effort,” Penn coach Steve Donahue said. “When nothing’s going right in long periods, you can hang your head. ... They played really good basketball the second half, and in particular on the defensive end against a very good offensive team.”

For a long time, the Quakers struggled to get closer than four. With Penn down six and just over five minutes remaining, a huge swing took place when sophomore guard Tyler Hamilton blew a wide-open layup and Enechionyia threw down an alley-oop dunk on the other end.

“If you’re going to beat Temple, you gotta make those,” Donahue lamented.

At that point, the game seemed over, but the Quakers had one more run in them. A pair of free throws from Hamilton and buckets inside from Howard and Brodeur cut the Temple lead to two, and the game went into the final minute with the Owls clinging to that one-possession margin.

“I thought we had them,” Brodeur said.

But the game’s final moments were dominated by Temple. Quinton Rose got to the rim for a basket to make it 66-62 with 42 seconds remaining, and Penn sophomore Jackson Donahue missed the front end of a one-and-one, enabling the Owls to ice the game at the free throw line.

“Temple deserved the win,” the Penn coach said. “It was a two point game with a minute to go, and they won the final minute.”

Brodeur was a bright spot in the loss, as the freshman continued his terrific play to start his Penn career. Brodeur drew praise from opposing coach (and former Penn coach) Fran Dunphy, but Donahue made the boldest statement of the day:

"[This was just his] sixth college game. ... I think we’ll see him improve dramatically over the next couple weeks and years, and become one of our all-time greats, honestly.”

The freshman was just one contributor in a game which saw Donahue give ten players double-digit minutes. After the game, the coach explained that, for now, the rotation is very flexible.

“We don’t have a pedigree of success right now, we’re trying to change this program around. That’s what I told my guys ... we’re all in this boat together, grab an oar, start rowing, as the Western Michigan coach [PJ Fleck] says.

“We don’t have a set rotation because we haven’t won, we can’t take that for granted, so everything’s open every day, if you play well in practice you can play in the game. Until we build that up, and three, four, five guys step up, we’re going to keep going like this, and give everyone a shot, we’re going to win as a team.”