M. Hoops at 2-0 in Big 5

The situation seemed eerily familiar. Leading by 15 points at halftime, the Penn men's basketball team had just finished dominating its opponent in every facet of play.

There was just one problem for the Quakers -- there were still 20 minutes left.

En route to Penn's 68-62 win over Temple, the Quakers almost forgot that small detail.

While Penn burst out to an early game lead, neither team shot well in the early going. Eight minutes into the game, the Quakers and Owls were knotted at seven.

The two teams creaked to an 11-11 tie with 8:30 left in the first half.

Temple's vaunted match-up zone has been known to stifle opponents during Coach John Chaney's 20-year tenure at Temple, but the Owls' defense was not the prime contributor to Penn's early shooting woes. The shots were there, but the Quakers just could not convert.

Sparked by Tim Begley's three-point shot with 7:45 left in the first half, Penn immediately began to attack a thin Temple frontcourt -- shorthanded by the absence of 6-foot-10, 290 pound center Ron Rollerson, sidelined with a strained groin.

Penn forward Koko Archibong's decisive speed advantage overwhelmed Temple's Kevin Lyde, giving the junior many open looks at the basket and numerous trips to the charity stripe.

Archibong did not disappoint on the defensive end, either.

"I thought we did a good job getting the ball out of [Lyde's] hands where he couldn't back us down and shoot over top of us," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said.

Lyde, a member of last year's second team All-Atlantic Ten, was almost completely neutralized during the game, finishing with only three points and six rebounds -- including an abysmal 1-for-7 from the foul line -- to show for his efforts.

Archibong, for his part, took advantage of his trips to the charity stripe, scoring 11 of his game-high 19 points on free throws. He did, however, contribute to a string of six consecutive missed free-throws in the home stretch of the game.

Besides keying on Lyde, the Quakers backcourt -- still without starting point guard Andrew Toole -- handled one of the most feared scorers in the NCAA in Temple's Lynn Greer quite capably. Before the game, Greer was third in NCAA Division I in scoring.

"He may be as smart as anyone we've played against," Dunphy said. "And he's definitely as good as anyone we've played against."

The senior guard, who ranks ninth on Temple's all-time scoring list, was largely ineffective against Penn.

The Quakers' inspired backcourt effort was led by the contributions of a pair of juniors, Duane King and David Klatsky.

In 14 minutes of play, King scored 11 points, which included three three-point shots at key junctures of the game. Klatsky -- last season's starting point guard, now Penn's sixth man -- meanwhile, directed the offense for 32 minutes, adding five points, four rebounds, and four assists.

"Duane King made some big shots," Dunphy said. "David Klatsky doesn't start for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that we like to bring him off the bench."

Although its defense on Greer was effective, Penn was fortunate that it did not have to face the Owls' star for much of the second half as Temple made its surge. The all A-10 guard fouled out in just 28 minutes of play --well below his average of nearly 40 minutes per game this year.

Despite losing the focal point of its offense, in the midst of a five game losing streak, Temple was not ready to hand Penn the victory just yet.

Anchored by the rejuvenated play of David Hawkins and Alex Wesby, including an emphatic dunk by Hawkins midway through the second half -- Temple stormed to within six of the Quakers before technical fouls against both John Chaney and Hooter the Owl halted their progress.

With 3:25 left in the game, David Hawkins leaned into an airborne Quakers sophomore Jeff Schiffner while he was behind the line, producing what seemed to both Chaney and Hawkins to be an obvious foul. Chaney was adamant that Hawkins should go to the line for the three shot foul.

The referee obviously disagreed, handing Chaney a technical foul with 3:14 remaining in the game.

"I called him out," Chaney said. "I would've given myself a 'T,' too, because I called him out. This is the first technical I've gotten in a long time."

Just ten seconds later, Hooter the Owl, Temple's mascot walked on to the court -- thinking that a timeout had been called -- flapped his wings at the official, and drew a technical of his own.

Yet even after the technical fouls, the Owls still managed to narrow the Quakers' lead to three with only 20 seconds remaining.

This, however, was as close as Temple would get.

After squandering a 12-point first-half lead against Davidson one week earlier, Penn knew it had to buckle down this time.

Converting five-of-six fouls shots in the final minute, the Quakers preserved the victory, finishing on top by six when the horn sounded.

"There is always concern [about losing the lead]," Archibong said. "But we stayed together, huddled up, and talked about it and felt that we'd be all right."

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