Williams carries Temple past Penn

After a forgettable weekend in which he struggled miserably, Temple forward Mark Williams had a redemptive performance Tuesday night against Penn.

Williams scored a career-high 24 points to lead the Owls to a 76-67 victory at the Liacouras Center.

Williams' previous career high was 11 points. After shooting just 2 for 15 in two weekend losses, he was 8 for 12 from the field and missed just one of his seven free throws against Penn (0-4).

Williams said he quickly let go of his 1-for-10 shooting performance in a 57-50 loss to UNLV in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic on Saturday. That came on the heels of a 1-for-5 showing in a 20-point loss to Duke.

The 6-foot-8 Williams said he was very frustrated going into the Penn game. "But it's basketball. We all got focused and, you know, on to the next one. It was good to have a nice bounce-back performance. But ultimately the goal is to win."

Winning didn't come easy for the Owls (3-2), who blew an 11-point first-half lead.

Penn got 17 points from guard Tony Hicks before he fouled out with 6 minutes, 36 seconds left in the game. The Quakers used a 9-2 run to cut the Owls' lead from 58-50 to 60-59 with 9:44 left. But the Owls, who also received 16 points from Will Cummings, pushed the lead back to a more comfortable 70-63 on Williams' layup with 2:15 left.

Hicks' absence hurt the Quakers down the stretch.

"Tony is an important player for us," Penn coach Jerome Allen said. "We missed him, but I thought the guys did a good job down the stretch. They got out of sync a couple of times, but to their credit we still had an opportunity to win."

Matt Howard added 15 points for Penn, which was hurt by the absence of second-leading scorer Mike Auger. Out with a leg injury that has yet to be specified, Auger scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the Quakers' previous game, against Lafayette. Earlier this week, he was named the Ivy League's rookie of the week.