Temple University Athletics
#9 Temple Falls to Wake Forest
12.4.99 | Men's Basketball
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (December 4) - Wake Forest coach Dave Odom got a perfect early
season game for his young team -- a
near-perfect first half followed by a teaching tool
in the second 20 minutes.
Robert O'Kelley scored 19 of his 22 points
in the first half and reserve Craig Dawson added
16 as the unbeaten Demon Deacons hung on to
beat No. 10 Temple 77-72 Saturday.
"I think we can handle it, but if the halftime
lead had held up I would have had to crack them
pretty hard the next few days to get their
attention," Odom said. "I'm pretty good at that, I
don't mind doing that, but I prefer doing it from a
teaching standpoint rather than cracking them
over the head."
Temple coach John Chaney just sat on the
bench most of the opening 20 minutes with head
in hand as O'Kelley and the Demon Deacons
(5-0) put on a basketball clinic against his team,
building a 26-point lead.
"We couldn't put the ball in the ocean,"
Chaney said of his club's 16 percent shooting in
the first half. "That's something we've never been
able to do too well."
Chaney said his team wasn't tough enough
when he claimed Wake Forest's big men were
setting illegal screens.
"We let them get away with screening off of
our patterns and that was my anger, that was
frustration," Chaney said. "I wanted us to
perhaps run through with a couple of elbows
right in a guy's neck because they were bad and
illegal screens. When that happens you've got to
go illegal like everybody else. We just couldn't
get that done. We should have done it earlier."
Despite the huge early deficit, the Owls
(2-2), behind a career-high 33 points from Mark
Karcher, threw a late scare into Wake Forest,
which opened 5-0 for the third time in the last
four seasons.
The Owls, playing their third straight game
without point guard Pepe Sanchez who has a
bad ankle, were an offensive nightmare, starting
the game 1-for-18 from the field to fall behind
big early. At one point, Temple missed 15
straight shots.
"We're headless horsemen (without
Sanchez) and you can't get it done in this
business," Chaney said.
Chaney said Sanchez wanted to play, but
there was still swelling in his ankle.
"That's not going to be his decision it's going
to be mine," Chaney said. " I value that kid and
he's pretty special to me. He can be his worst
enemy because he is a macho person."
Odom said he wished Sanchez would have
played.
"Great players deserve to be on the court. I
don't like to see people hurt," Odom said. "Did it
affect the game? Absolutely it affected the game.
Does that mean we wouldn't have won the game
if he had played? No, it doesn't mean that. We
know this, they would have been a much better
team with him on the court."
Wake Forest shot 53 percent, made all 10
of its foul shots and committed only one turnover
in a near perfect opening half.
O'Kelley, a 6-foot-1 junior guard, scored
eight of Wake Forest's first 10 points to shred
Temple's zone. That was before the Demon
Deacons went on a 23-4 run, scoring 15 points
in a span of 2:53 for a 33-9 lead eight minutes
before the half.
Temple came into the game last in the
Atlantic 10 in shooting at 37 percent, and a
5-for-31 opening 20 minutes didn't help.
The Owls, with just 21 turnovers in their first
three games, wilted under Wake Forest's
pressure defense and gave the ball away seven
times in the disastrous first half.
Wake Forest started the second half
1-for-10 as Temple got within 15, but the 48-22
halftime score was too much for the Owls to
overcome.
"We had enough composure, enough poise
to hold them off, but we didn't look good doing
it. I would be the first to admit that," said Odom.
O'Kelley was 7-for-10 from the field in the
first half with four 3-pointers, but shot just four
times in the second half -- missing all four.
Karcher's previous best point total was 25
against Florida State in 1998.
