Temple guard David Hawkins helped ensure that his coach celebrated his birthday in style.
The senior captain put up 26 points for the second straight game and tied a career high in assists with eight in the Owls' 73-69 win over Penn on John Chaney's 72nd birthday.
Before the opening tip-off, Penn coach Fran Dunphy walked the Palestra's sideline to hand a birthday cake to his friend.
"I'm very happy for him in any success that he gets," Dunphy said. "He's a Hall of Fame coach and he's a Hall of Fame guy as well."
Hawkins began the game getting his teammates involved in the offense. Seven minutes into the game, the nation's seventh-leading scorer did not have a point, but already had four assists as Temple (6-8, 1-1 Big 5) held an 11-10 advantage.
However, his last assist was perhaps the most critical. Up by five with a minute-and-a-half to play, Hawkins hit guard Dustin Salisbery in the lane on a fastbreak and the freshman emphatically dunked the ball to push the lead to 68-61.
For the rest of game, Penn (7-6, 1-3 Big 5) was forced to foul and hope that the Owls would miss their free throws down the stretch.
After Temple went 3-for-6 from the charity stripe in the game's final 40 seconds, the Quakers found themselves within six points with 10 seconds to play.
Junior guard Tim Begley -- the Red and Blue's leading scorer with 22 points -- hit a jumper from the top of the key, but had his foot on the three-point line. The call was confirmed by the officials using television replay, and Penn remained down by two possessions at 73-69 with less than four seconds remaining.
The Quakers got the ball back after senior guard Charlie Copp forced a held ball with Hawkins and the possession arrow was in Penn's favor. However, fellow senior Jeff Schiffner's attempt to draw a foul on his three-point attempt was unsuccessful and the final buzzer gave Chaney his 699th career victory.
Sophomore Mardy Collins complemented Hawkins' play with 18 points and seven rebounds, as the only Owl to play the entire 40 minutes.
"I think it is the best game Mardy has played in two years now," Chaney said. "When the clock's running down, he has the license to break his man down and he did a good job of that tonight."
The turnover differential was not in Penn's favor, as the Quakers turned the ball over 11 times to Temple's five.
Dunphy gave credit to Chaney's vaunted matchup zone.
"What appears to be open, is not always an open look," he said. "That being said, I thought we had enough opportunities to score on some threes in the second half in particular, [we] just didn't make shots."
The Red and Blue relied heavily on the three-point shot during the game. Thirty-eight of the Quakers' 61 shots were from three-point land, but their accuracy tailed off as the game went on.
After shooting 47.1 percent from the behind the arc, Penn held a two-point advantage going into halftime, but lost its lead in the second stanza after shooting only 28.6 percent from long distance.
"We had 21 looks in the second half from three," Dunphy said. "If we're going to get that many, we got to make at least 10 of them."
With more than a week before their next contest -- the Ivy League opener at Yale on Jan. 30 -- the Quakers will have a couple of days off before they resume practice in preparation for the defense of their Ancient Eight title.
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