Temple University Athletics
STRONG FIRST HALF PROPELS TEMPLE MEN TO 67-56 WIN OVER PENN STATE
12.13.03 | Men's Basketball
Temple (2-4) made 13 steals as three of Temple's four starting guards -- Dustin Salisbery, Mardy Collins and Hawkins -- posted four thefts. Temple's other ball-handler, point guard Mario Taybron, had eight assists and just one turnover while playing the entire 40 minutes. Hawkins and Collins joined Taybron on the hardwood for the contest's entirety.
Hawkins scored 10 of the Owls' first 14 points, making his first four shots, including two three-pointers. Despite the All-America candidate's hot hand, Penn State (3-4) held an early lead before Temple went on a 12-3 run to take 16-13 edge on a Nehemiah Ingram lay-up with 14:35 on the clock. The Owls ran their advantage to six points but Penn State remained close and tied the game at 26 with 6:32 remaining before the break on a Jan Jagla lay-up. Temple answered the basket with 19 of the first half's final 21 points.
The Owls entered the locker room at the midpoint with a 45-28 advantage, courtesy of a 57.1 percent (16-28) shooting percentage. Hawkins and Collins accounted for 30 of Temple's first half points, depositing 19 and 11, respectively. The Cherry & White also out-rebounded the Nittany Lions, 17-12, prior to the intermission and forced the visitors to commit 10 turnovers.
The Owls' 45 first-half points were the team's most since posting 51 prior to the break in a 96-77 victory at St. Bonaventure on February 1, 2003. The output also tied for the second most for Temple in a first half at the Liacouras Center, following a 47-point effort against Fresno State in the arena's opening game in 1997, a 76-61 Owl victory.
Temple's hot shooting hand, however, went cold after the break. The Owls made just three of their first 18 attempts from the field in the second half and went scoreless for over 11 minutes as the Nittany Lions began to reduce the deficit. After a Salisbery free throw gave Temple a 53-33 lead with 14:55 remaining, the team's next points came on a pair of Hawkins' conversions from the charity stripe with 8:03 on the clock.
A Marlon Smith trey with 5:28 remaining diminished the Owls' lead to nine points, 57-48, but the Nittany Lions would come no closer as Chaney's match-up zone confounded the visitors. The Owls increased their lead to double digits again before Deforrest Riley-Smith hit a three-pointer with just over a minute to play to register a 65-56 score. Temple closed out the scoring on a pair of Hawkins' free throws with 0:44 seconds remaining.
Temple's sluggish 20 percent (4-20) second half shooting performance resulted in the Owls' making 41.7 percent (20-48) of their attempts for the game. Penn State shot 41.5 percent (22-53) on the evening and was led in the scoring column by Riley-Smith, who posted 17 points.
The Owls return to the hardwood in two days, for a 7:00 p.m. tip-off against Southeastern Conference-member South Carolina on Monday, Dec. 15, at the Liacouras Center. The contest will not be televised. The game will mark the 12th meeting between the schools with the Gamecocks holding a 7-4 advantage. Last season, USC defeated the Owls 66-47 in what was the inaugural game of South Carolina's new arena, The Carolina Center. The contest took place on Dec. 2 and was the second match-up of a three-game road swing along Carolina's "Tobacco Road" in a span of four days.
