Seifter | Turnovers too costly for Penn

It’s rarely easy to pinpoint just a single weakness in a 17-point loss. But in Penn’s 73-56 loss to Temple last night, the statistics don’t lie.

That margin of deficit can be explained by Temple’s 28-12 advantage in points off turnovers.

Penn looked completely capable of executing its half-court offense. The Quakers had several strong stretches and shot over 44 percent from the field, including an 8-for-15 mark from three-point range.

But far too often, Penn was plagued by sloppy execution and ill-advised passes.

In all, Penn accumulated 23 turnovers — four more than the team’s 19 successful field goals. The Quakers tallied just 13 assists.

“When you turn the ball over 23 times at this level, you’re going to struggle to beat anybody,” coach Jerome Allen said. “You’re not going to beat any team at the Division-I level if you’re not taking care of the basketball.”

About midway through the first half, Penn held a well-earned 16-12 lead. But over the next six minutes, Temple compiled a 10-0 run, fueled by seven Penn turnovers.

In the second period, the Quakers made a run to cut the Temple lead to five with under nine minutes to play, but more sloppiness allowed the Owls to comfortably pull away.

Of course, some credit must be given to Temple for creating those miscues. Ivy League opponents have neither the same height and athleticism on the inside nor the Owls’ ability to consistently switch on ball screens without creating a glaring mismatch.

Yet by Temple coach Fran Dunphy’s own admission, the Owls rarely resort to full-court pressure and do not normally force so many turnovers.

“Their pressure didn’t really bother us,” Allen said. “We didn’t have the amount of poise and the patience we needed to execute coming down the stretch.”

Dunphy said his team was able to rack up 14 steals by effectively reading passing lanes.

In other words, the Quakers need to do a better job of creating angles and disguising their intentions.

Contrary to what the final score might suggest, Penn actually had more rebounds, shot better from beyond the arc and attempted more free throws than Temple.

Despite holding their own in all of those areas, the Quakers coughed the ball up 10 more times than the Owls and, as a result, had nine fewer field-goal attempts.

Whether the Quakers are playing against the Big 5 or the Ivy League is immaterial when over one-third of their possessions end in turnovers.

ARI SEIFTER is a senior computer and cognitive science major from Ellicott City, Md., and is former Associate Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be contacted at dpsports@theDP.com.

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