Temple shoots down Penn State
Temple over Penn State in the tourney.
Temple shoots down Penn State
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
TUCSON, Ariz. -- We all know the drill by know. Two Pennsylvania teams, both dying for an NCAA Tournament win, shipped out to Arizona to play a game whose starting time was in the late breakfast/early lunch part of the day (depending upon how late you stayed out the night before). The coaching staffs, full of competitive people who also happen to be personal friends, all carry the burden of their profession, the one where everyone tends to forget everything you do in the other 49 weeks of the year, so fixated are they on this.
Temple and Penn State, then.
And on this day, Temple coach Fran Dunphy finally broke through while Penn State's Ed DeChellis can only wonder. Penn State's Talor Battle tied the game at 64-64 with a 30-foot bomb with 14.2 seconds remaining in the second half. Then Juan Fernandez won it with a gutty, 18-foot desperation jump shot with 0.4 seconds left.
Temple 66, Penn State 64.
It was a game that defied easy description. The first half, neither team played very good defense and Temple led, 35-33. Fernandez had 17 at the half, carrying the Owls. Lavoy Allen had, uh, zero
The second half saw spurts of running, much of it up and down and ineffectual. Then, it really became a gut fight. The Owls still couldn’t get Allen going, and Fernandez cooled, so it was Ramon Moore who carried the offense in the second half. Allen didn’t get his first field goal until 2:14 left in the second half. He finished with three points. But Allen did have a huge block of a Battle layup that would have given Penn State the lead with about 35 seconds remaining.
Battle, the Penn State star guard, was quieted for a long stretch of the game by the Temple defense, often keyed by Khalif Wyatt. But he got free and did plenty. And he hit that bomb.
Temple gets the winner of San Diego State-Northern Colorado. Penn State gets weeks and months of what-ifs. Tough business. Brutal business.
Temple owns Penn State— primo- I'm somewhere between primo and penncrow19, which means in line with 99% of the U.S.
Unbelieveable start to the Tourney. Nice job Owls.— PhillyinDaChi- psu brooks hurt did not play 2nd half,\.that was the difference.— jstash
- and if temple had scootie and michael eric healthy it would have been different too. yes, scootie played, but committed costly turnovers and was more of a burden than a blessing in his return
- In men's basketball, yes. ALmost any other sport, campus, academics, safety, then no.— penncrow19
- Just like the Guv predicted...a blowout!— younged
- @jstash - you know nothing!
with him out you have to make the adjustment. temple is down 2 starters and still pulled out the win.
we were tougher mentally when it counted, and maybe just maybe we had a little luck along the way.
house money now boys! keep it up. anything from here is gravy! go temple #TUMF!— TUTough - Congrats to Dunph, glad to see him finally get another win.— pc24
I've been waiting 3 long years for this, from Mardy Collins to Dionte Christmas, we couldn't get past the 1st round. It's about time.- WHAT A GAME WINNING SHOT BY Juan Fernandez— Julius May
- After Brooks went out it was essentially Temple vs Battle. Temple barely wins on a lucky shot at the end. Congrats to coach Dunphy, one of the good guys. Temple will get smoked next round.— delcodanno
- good to see. Penn State and their wannabe alum had it coming. I have never seen a more obnoxious group. Their college is the equivalent of 13th grade, yet they act as if they went to an Ivy League school. State Penn is Fraud U. Joe Pa sux.— thingfish
- Good for dunph!! Where is that idiot jay grace— Ted Mosby
- Thingfish sounds like he's jealous of psu people. Go owls!!— Ted Mosby
- Fran Dunphy is a LaSalle grad by the way. Outstanding guard for the Explorers.— Bob1
- Yeah right, the owls own PSU - Not! Lucky shot at the buzzer does not own...— M60tanker
- Nasty comments from the PSU fans. No class.— John Fante
- Thingfish sounds like a freakin' a-hole. Their campus is part of the ghetto. They've worn out Bill Cosby as their only "claim to fame" alum. The rest of the alums have deep pockets (when you can find them). Their biggest football crowds are when they are home against Penn State. Until Al Golden(a PSU alum)came along, they were ready to drop football, like they did wrestling. Big deal, you beat PSU in a close basketball game. And, finally Fat Eddie knows as much about basketball as he did about running PA and Philadelphia. Is that clown an alum, too????— MFinSC
- Bring on Ohio State!— johnny eagle
- typical responses from the "happy valley" crowd..just look what M(other)F inSC wrote...lol!
— tdoc 
Comment removed.- Congrats to Coach Dunphy. For the guy who said they'll get smoked next round- you're bound to be right one of these times.
Go Owls!
']['— smfree31 - -penn state and their alum had it coming?? had what coming?? this isn't duke you're talking about here. i'm a psu grad that rooted for temple because i grew up here. it's a shame that the ncaa was too lazy to split these two up.
-but like in the sweet 16 round in 2001, i root for temple when they play each other.
-otherwise i root for psu all the way. including football games vs temple. to say psu basketball fans are arrogant is a clueless statement.penn state travels well. bowl games, nit games at the garden. doesn't matter. we're just college kids/alum having fun. - mfin you're a ja. those cmmts were completely over the line.
- My comments may have been over the line. But, the truth hurts, doesn't it?— MFinSC
- How does Penn State travel well?...they only had about 1,000 fans at the Big-10 championship game.— primo
- the truth?? according to whom?? oh i get it. you're a clown dude. and i'm done. psu lost. that's it. deal with it.
- psu travels well overall. as i student we used to take 14 buses to ny when psu made it to the nit final four. my guess for the low turn out(if it was compared to the other big ten schools) was maybe the economy. or maybe the fact that chi-town is a 9 hour bus ride from state college. one way. as a student, they normally limit the number who goes to a few plus the band.
- Wonder who will have more fans next fall at the link temple or psu???— Ted Mosby
- Nice to see the loser Temple fans have their 15 minutes by dissing PSU. Classy. Go back to your ghetto campus, restock your mace and look forward to having your cars stolen.— bjps1353
- Temple was a classy sports school when Penn Staters were still milking cows for credit. Staters are the most obnoxious fans out there. I used to think Nebraska fans were, but PSU tops them all. As for the campus, I spent a month one week up there during the summer. Nothing to do. Come to Philly and try not to do something, year round. PSU gets to the NCAAs once a decade and all of a sudden it turns into Duke?— mike l
- PSU dudes are all drunks but that campus has the hottest chicks.— Serge_Matthews
- psu is number one seed in NCAA drunks and alcoholics— wolf 4
