M. Hoops falls at No. 13 Owls

After it was over, after it was all over and the Penn men's basketball team came up short in its upset bid over No. 13 Temple, junior guard Jerome Allen untucked his uniform shirt, wiped his face clean and let out a big sigh as he headed to the Quaker locker room. He and his teammates had busted their tails for 40 minutes in front of 3,900 fans in a sold-out McGonigle Hall -- in what was earlier touted as the "Big 5 Game of the Year." But as Allen's face and actions illustrated after the Quakers' 76-65 loss to city-rival Temple last night, Penn (9-2) lost a golden chance to upset one of the most feared teams in the country as well as a chance to end a 12-year losing streak against the Owls (8-2). But what it did gain was the respect from one of the most revered coaches in the country, Temple's John Chaney. "That team is one of the best-coached teams in the country," Chaney said. "That's just a great ballclub. I just think that's one of the best teams that we've seen all year, and I don't think we're going to see anybody any better than that team that we played tonight.?You watch, this team is going to go a long way, believe me." Chaney became a believer in this year's Penn team because the Quakers were able to stay with his Owls for the majority of the second half, despite Temple hitting baskets at a blistering pace (18 for 27, 66.7 percent) after intermission. A major upset was still in the cards until 7:31 remaining in the game. That was when Allen committed his fourth foul on a reach around on Owl senior forward Eddie Jones. Allen (26 points, four rebounds, five assists), who probably had his most impressive game in a Penn uniform, had to that point poured in 17 points on unconscious long-distance shooting, not to mention his stellar defense effectively shut down Temple star and probable NBA lottery pick Aaron McKie. McKie finished with 24 points, but when Allen left with his fourth foul, the Owls' long-range bomber had only amassed 14 points on unimpressive 6 of 18 shooting. And although Penn's 6-4 guard returned two minutes later, it was clear that the momentum had shifted Temple's way. A Derek Battie dunk with 6:13 left broke a 54-54 tie. The next time down the court, Penn junior guard Matt Maloney -- who made only 3 of 18 treys on the night (5 for 21 overall, 13 points) -- had his narrowest and most costly miss of the game. His uncontested rainbow from the right corner seemed to go halfway down before popping out to Temple's Rick Brunson, who then started and ended an Owl fast break with a three-pointer. After a Maloney pass and a missed Penn shot were each turned into easy Temple buckets, the game was effectively over, as the Owls had a nine-point bulge, 63-54, with three minutes remaining. "I thought [the shot] was good when it left my hand," Maloney said. "I thought all my shots were good when they left my hand tonight." One of Maloney's good three-pointers came as the Quakers came out hot to begin the second half. In fact, despite Temple's amazing shooting after intermission, it seemed as if the Owls were the team trying to keep pace in the first 10 minutes of the second half. An anemic offensive showing in the first half saw both teams shoot a combined 18 of 52 from the field, including a span of seven minutes when Penn (7 for 24, 3 for 13 three-pointers in the first half) shot all blanks en route to a 24-22 Quaker halftime deficit. But the Penn perimeter players came out firing after intermission with a vengeance, a marked difference from last year's 72-58 loss to the Owls at the Spectrum when the Quakers missed shots from all over the court. "Last year I didn't think they shot very well, but this year they shot extremely well," Temple small forward Eddie Jones said. Allen hit a trey from the top of the key to give Penn the lead 19 seconds into the half. After a Jones (22 points on 9 of 19 shooting) jumper swung the lead back Temple's way, Quaker senior captain Barry Pierce (15 points) made good on a running left-handed finger roll in the lane. Maloney then hit a bomb from the left corner, and just like that Penn had a four-point advantage. The Quakers seemed to steal the momentum the Owls had gained heading into halftime on an McKie putback at the buzzer. And although the game remained close and Temple made almost every shot it took, Penn had command of the game, momentum and the crowd until the five-minute mark when it all fell apart. "This was a very important game for all of us," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "We wanted to show our best out there and up until about the five-minute mark, I thought we did. There's probably a couple first-round [NBA] draft picks out there that we played against.?I thought we played well for the most part." The Quakers did play well for the most part, holding two-thirds of the Owl offensive weapons in check. Don't let the gaudy point totals fool you. Jones and McKie were not on their game last night, and that was mainly due to Penn's man-to-man defense. But Rick Brunson was not off his game. The Owl floor-general scored 16 points on 6 of 7 shooting while dishing out five assists. But more importantly, Brunson, who played all 40 minutes of the game, did not commit a turnover. This is an amazing statistic for a point guard, who handles the ball on every possession. "[Brunson] played a perfect ballgame as a point," Chaney said. "That was great play out of Ricky throughout the night." What Penn needed was some of Brunson's "perfect" passing. True the Owls took over at the end of the game, but the game might not have been that close were it not for the problems Temple's matchup zone caused the Quakers throughout the entire contest. The Owls' amoeba-like defense seemed to ooze onto every part of the hardwood floor, engulfing otherwise routine Penn passes and converting them into easy baskets. The majority of those passes were made by Penn's big men while they were lost in no man's land at the top of the key. If it were not for five bad Quaker passes which were converted into easy Temple points, Penn could have been able to absorb the Owls' final run and the game could have indeed had a much happier ending for the Quakers. "I thought they did a really good job of taking us out of some passing lanes," Dunphy said. "This is a long team, a quick team. The margin for error on one of your passes [against Temple] is much different than against another team They have that kind of speed." It was "that kind of speed" that ultimately gave Temple the game and ended any Penn chances to pull off an upset against a nationally-ranked squad. And that left Allen and the rest of the Quakers only to sigh and wonder what could have been.

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