Penn's loss mars winning weekend for city colleges
MY TOP four NCAA Tournament seeds if the selections were today: East - Maryland South - Oklahoma Midwest - Michigan State
MY TOP four NCAA Tournament seeds if the selections were today:
East - Maryland
South - Oklahoma
Midwest - Michigan State
West - Kansas
If Penn had held on against Princeton at the Palestra, it would have been a rare perfect Saturday in the city, with three of the wins being upsets, two by teams that had to be wondering when (or if) they were going to win again.
La Salle, a 12-point underdog, did exactly what it was supposed to do against Dayton at Gola Arena, play a low-possession game to keep its six-man team as fresh as possible and not give the superior forces any more chances than necessary. Virginia is the lowest possession team in the country with 62 per game. There were just 59 possessions in the Explorers' 61-57 upset of a team that had been good enough to beat Iowa, Arkansas, Alabama and Vanderbilt in the nonconference.
The win ended a seven-game losing streak for the Explorers (5-8, 1-2 Atlantic 10) and gave them a template for how to play with such a short rotation. All the La Salle points were scored by its starters, each of whom scored double figures. Star Jordan Price had 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Dayton (12-3, 2-1) had nearly as many turnovers (14) as baskets (17) and shot just 30.9 percent.
La Salle actually trailed 43-36 with 8 minutes left, but played a near perfect endgame, including taking a foul with 5 seconds left up by three points so the Flyers could not take a shot to tie the game.
Penn loses in OT to Princeton
Princeton had to score on seven of its last eight regulation possessions just to get the game at the Palestra into overtime after Penn led 64-53 with 3 1/2 minutes left. And Penn had to go its last seven possessions of OT without a point to allow the Tigers to escape with a 73-71 win.
Penn (6-8, 0-1 Ivy) played well enough to have won despite committing 18 turnovers and shooting 4-for-11 from the foul line while Princeton was 22 of 30. Princeton (10-4, 1-0) got a brilliant game from Amir Bell who had never scored 20 in his career, but had 28 against the Quakers.
It was announced a few hours before the game that point guard Antonio Woods, probably Penn's most important player, has an academic issue that will keep out until the 2017 spring semester. Senior Darien Nelson-Henry had 17 points and seven rebounds, but two players that are clearly huge parts of the future, Jackson Donahue (16 points) and Jake Silpe (11 points, seven rebounds and seven assists) nearly got Penn home.
Owls dominate second half, beat East Carolina
Clearly, the blowout home loss to Houston on Jan. 2 was the aberration for Temple. The Owls blew away East Carolina at the Liacouras Center, 78-60, while scoring a dazzling 1.32 points per possession. That can happen when you shoot 50 percent, make 13 threes, commit just eight turnovers and win the second half, 45-22.
Quenton DeCosey had 24 for Temple (8-6, 3-1 American). Devin Coleman had 17 off the bench. Point guard Josh Brown, who is probably the team's key player, was steady again with 12 points, eight assists and no turnovers.
East Carolina (8-8, 0-3) had some control in the first half, but it was all Temple in the final 20 minutes. The Owls already have league wins at Cincinnati and Connecticut and appear very close to getting on an offensive roll. They are already third nationally in lowest turnover percentage, a very good starting point for an efficient offense.
Drexel refuses to give up lead vs. Charleston
Drexel led for the entire second half against Charleston at the DAC and every time the Dragons had to make a shot or a free throw to stay ahead, they did, winning 61-54. They were outscored 21-3 from the arc, but won it because of superior foul shooting (28 of 35 vs. seven of 11 for C of C) and the continued strong play of big man Rodney Williams.
Williams shot 7-for-11 and had 19 points. Over his last three games, Williams is 19-for-29 for 51 points.
Drexel (3-12, 1-3 CAA) was not playing as poorly as its record. There would just be moments in games the Dragons would not handle well at all. Drexel handled those moments against Charleston (10-5, 2-2).
On Twitter: @DickJerardi