Temple lacks firepower, falls to Illini at Palestra

Two games into the season, Temple men's basketball coach John Chaney thinks his team needs some tweaking.

"We've just got to add a few more people who can score," he said. "I just don't have enough firepower."

Easier said than done.

Chaney lamented the Owls' second-straight loss -- a 75-60 trashing by No. 11 Illinois -- at the Palestra on Saturday. Temple (0-2) opened with a 73-48 loss to Big 5 rival Villanova at midnight on Nov. 21.

Temple's scoring woes continued in this affair.

The Owls totaled only five assists on their 20 baskets as a team.

And although the Owls received better play from senior guard David Hawkins (28 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the field), no one else was in double-digits.

"I'm disappointed in Mardy Collins... and Dustin Salisbery," Chaney said.

Salisbery, a freshman, was 2-of-9 from the field, while sophomore Collins was 3-of-13.

Temple's offense was bad, but the Cherry and White's defense might have been worse.

After allowing Villanova to jump out to a 10-point halftime lead the prior week, Temple didn't start any better in this one -- allowing the Fighting Illini to score the game's first eight points en route to an 18-5 lead by the first media timeout, four minutes in.

Seven minutes later, Illinois was up by 20, 27-7.

Illinois hit its first two three-pointers, making nine overall. Starting sophomore guards Deron Williams and Dee Brown each had four.

While the Illini committed 17 turnovers, they also dished out 22 assists on 27 buckets.

Illinois' assist-to-turnover ratio was 1.3 while Temple's was 0.6.

"I thought our kids did a great job of moving the ball and when you make threes, it makes it easier," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.

Weber is 3-0 at Illinois so far in replacement of former Illini coach Bill Self, who left for Kansas at the end of last year. Previously, Weber coached at Southern Illinois for five seasons, where he posted a 103-54 record and led the Salukis to the Sweet 16 in 2002.

Illinois lost former Big Ten Player of the Year Brian Cook to the NBA after last season, but forward Roger Powell has stepped up.

The junior has two straight double-doubles, including 19 points and 10 rebounds against the Owls.

Temple switched to a 1-2-2 trap zone in the second half, but only got as close as 12 points, 52-40.

A three by Williams and a fast-break layup by Brown pushed it back to 17, and the Owls would not threaten again.

"We didn't get pressure on the ball, so there were more mistakes made," Chaney said.

The two schools agreed on off-campus venues for their home-and-home series. The Illini won last year's meeting at the United Center in Chicago, 70-54.

The game at the Palestra was Temple's first regular season home game in the gym since the 1985-86 season, the last year all Big 5 games were played on Penn's campus.

The Owls return to action on Dec. 3 at Rutgers, and return to the Palestra on Saturday against Drexel at noon in the Big 5 Classic.

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