Temple University Athletics
Men's Basketball Turns Back Villanova 69-66
12.15.99 | Men's Basketball
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - It seemed Villanova coach Steve Lappas had the right idea: Let Temple's Quincy Wadley shoot.
After all, the senior guard had scored 28 points all season on 7-for-46 shooting.
Well, another great idea died an early death as Wadley scored all 17 of his points in the first half Wednesday night to help the 17th-ranked Owls beat Villanova 69-66.
"I had just been shooting bad. I was trying to force the action," said Wadley, who averaged 8.0 points as a sophomore and 9.2 last season. "Mark (Karcher) and Lynn (Greer) had been carrying us and I felt I had to step up and my teammates' confidence got me in the flow of the game."
Lappas wasn't second-guessing himself.
"We decided to test him. It was my fault it didn't work out," he said. "We made some adjustments in the second half and did a better job."
The Owls (4-2) won again despite not having senior point guard Pepe Sanchez in the lineup because of a sprained ankle. Sanchez, who has played in one game this season, is expected to be out another 3-4 weeks and Temple showed it needed his court leadership down the stretch.
"I had to call two timeouts in the last minute because they were running around with their heads cut off and they didn't know what they were doing," Owls coach John Chaney said. "I don't have to do that when Pepe is out there. Pepe can deliver breakfast, lunch and supper to everyone in this room."
Temple extended a 40-33 halftime lead to 59-46 on a 3-pointer by Greer with 8:18 to play. The Wildcats (3-2) then went on a 17-5 run with all but the last two points coming on 3-pointers against Temple's matchup zone.
Senior forward Brian Lynch, who finished with career highs of 22 points and six 3-pointers, had four consecutive 3s during the run that ended with Malik Allen's short jumper that made it 64-63 with 2:37 to play.
"They did a great job of spreading out Lynch with long passes and that really hurt us," Chaney said.
Lamont Barnes' three-point play with 1:58 left gave Temple a 67-63 lead and Jermaine Medley, who came into the game 1-for-15 from 3-point range, nailed his second 3 of the second half to make it 67-66 with 1:52 left.
Greer, who finished with 14 points, then scored on a drive with one second left on the shot clock for the final margin with 1:13 to play.
Medley missed two 3-pointers _ the second one forced with eight seconds left _ around a shot clock violation by the Owls. Temple's Karcher missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with six seconds left and Villanova's last chance was a 3 at the buzzer by T.J. Caouette that bounced off the rim and sent the sellout crowd of 10,206 at The Apollo of Temple home happy.
"Bobby Smith made a great decision to get the ball to T.J. and the shot looked pretty good," Lappas said. "With six seconds left I think we got a pretty good shot."
Wadley was 6-for-9 from the field in the first half, including 3-for-5 from 3-point range. He missed three shots in the second half.
"That's the first time he's had a representative game for us," Chaney said.
Barnes finished with 12 points and Karcher had 11.
Freshman Gary Buchanan had 14 points for Villanova, all but two on 3-pointers as the Wildcats finished 14-for-30 from 3-point range.
Lynch and Allen both had to get stitches for facial cuts they received during the game.
The game was the first for both teams in the Big Five series, which returns to a full round-robin this season for the first time since the 1990-91 season.
"It was very exciting, my first time on the floor for a Big Five game," Buchanan said. "It's going to mean great competition in this great city."
