Going Big 0 in Big 5

A determined second-half effort proved too little too late for the Quakers, who got off to a familiar nightmare start last night against Temple and fell, 80-64, at the Liacouras Center.

Penn (5-12, 0-4 Big 5) lost its third contest in a row - all city-series matchups - to go winless in the Big 5 for the first time since the 2000-2001 season.

Temple coach Fran Dunphy, in his second season on North Broad Street after leaving Penn, got his first win against his former team after being narrowly denied last year at the Palestra.

"When you're in the line, shaking hands with those guys, you know most of them," Dunphy said. "I have great respect for the University of Pennsylvania; I had 17 years and I'm a lucky guy."

The opening minutes of last night's tilt looked eerily similar to Saturday's disaster against St. Joe's. Just 2:54 in, Temple had burst to a 12-0 lead on 4-of-5 shooting from behind the arc.

But for the down-and-out Quakers, a competitive second half provided some much-needed optimism heading into Ivy play. The Quakers gradually chipped away at Temple's 19-point lead. Twice, Penn got as close as 10.

"I'm not much into moral victories, but we just played better basketball," Penn coach Glen Miller said of the second half.

That half was not short on fireworks that decisively killed Penn's momentum.

With 13:30 left and the Quakers trailing by 13, Brian Grandieri came up with a steal and found Kevin Egee up ahead on the break. The junior's layup appeared to hit the backboard before a swooping Mark Tyndale got the block.

But the goaltending call never came, and instead of an 11-point deficit, Temple's Dionte Christmas nailed a three-pointer on the resulting fast break.

Still reeling from the sequence, freshman Tyler Bernardini lost control and was called for a charge on Penn's next possession.

Miller, livid on the bench and perhaps showing his pent-up frustration, unleashed a lengthy tirade on the referees to draw a technical foul.

"It was a big swing," he said afterwards.

That swing undid Penn's seven minutes of progress. Down 41-22 at the half, a different Penn team had come out of the locker room and immediately stated its intention to make a game out of a laugher.

Sophomore Andreas Schreiber looked as good as he has all season, Bernardini scored all 16 of his points after the break and Harrison Gaines logged his first minutes after missing four out of five games with a hamstring injury.

"Guys played with more aggressiveness, more attack, more execution, just a much more competitive approach in the second half," Miller said. "Going forward, if we can ramp that up another notch, maybe we can start to win some games."

The Quakers shot 50 percent in the second half, up from 32 percent in the first. They turned it over just three times after the break and tallied six steals to Temple's zero during that time.

"We just kind of threw everything out the window and said 'forget about it,' and started to attack more," Bernardini said.

Had it not been for Christmas and Tyndale, the game may have turned out differently.

"I thought they played great in the second half," Dunphy said. "I would say that they're going to be a very good basketball team very soon."

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