Owls Win First Game of Season Over Delaware 56-49

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Kevin Lyde worked on his shooting over the summer and has made Temple coach John Chaney a believer.

The 6-foot-9, 240-pound Lyde had 21 points on 10-of-15 shooting and sparked a second-half rally as the Owls beat Delaware 56-49 Monday

night in the opening round of the Preseason NIT.

"I just want to show Coach that I can do what he wants me to do," said Lyde, who scored seven points in Temple's 14-0 run in the second half.

The Owls advanced to the second round and will play New Mexico, which beat George Mason 79-68, on Wednesday night.

"Kevin gave us a fine effort," Chaney said, adding that he was not happy with the rest of his team. "I believe he can shoot now. He really worked

on it over the summer."

Temple, who lost Atlantic 10 MVP Pepe Sanchez and first-team all-conference selection Mark Karcher from last year's league champions, shot

just 38 percent (20-for-52) against the Blue Hens' sticky man-to-man defense. The performance of the backcourt of Lynn Greer (1-for-12) and

Quincy Wadley (1-for-10) had Chaney puzzled.

"I have never seen Quincy play as badly as he did tonight," Chaney said. "I would never imagine he and Greer shooting like that. That was an ugly

game for us. We just couldn't put the ball in the basket."

Temple trailed 43-36 with 9:26 to play when Delaware's Billy Wells hit a 3-pointer.

The Owls then went on the 14-0 run and were up 50-43 with 4:51 to go.

The Blue Hens closed within 52-49 on two free throws by Ajmal Basit with 2:13 to play, but David Hawkins hit a jumper and Greer added two

free throws to secure the victory.

Delaware, despite giving up size on the frontline, was able to stay even in the first half as Temple shot 9-for-25 from the field and missed seven of

11 free throws.

This was the head coaching debut for Delaware's David Henderson, who spent the last three seasons as an assistant at Duke. He replaced Mike

Brey who left to take over as coach at Notre Dame.

Henderson said it was an honor to coach his first game against Chaney, who started his 19th season at Temple.

"I was really looking forward to tonight," he said. "It just happened to be against an icon. I'll forever remember this night, coaching against a

legend. I came here to compete, though, and we did that."

Temple University Athletics