Temple University Athletics
UMASS THWARTS TEMPLE COMEBACK, 66-65, IN MEN'S BASKETBALL
1.24.04 | Men's Basketball
"It is not something that I dwell on," said Chaney of the milestone. "Everybody else is constantly reminding me of it. I might even die before I get to 700.
"If it comes so be it," he added. "We will get up the next day and go back to practice and keep right on doing it."
The game was a tale of two halves. UMass (6-11, 1-5 in A-10 play) was on fire in the first half, draining 14-of-22 from the field (63.6%), and equally impressive from three-point range (7-11), to take a commanding 39-22 lead at intermission. The Owls, on the other hand, struggled offensively, hitting just nine-of-37 overall (24.3%) in the frame and four-of-20 from long range. Hawkins, the team's leader, could not break free from a box-and-one defense and did not score until the final minute of the half.
UMass picked up right where it left off in the second half, stretching the margin to 23 (54-31) on a Jeff Viggiano lay-up with 14:19 to play. That is when the Cherry and White finally woke up.
Hawkins would lead an Owl charge that started with 13 unanswered points and ended with a 34-8 run, giving Temple a 65-62 lead with 1:40 remaining. After a Chris Chadwick miss on the subsequent possession, TU had the ball and looked to be ready to close out the win, giving Chaney #700 in what Temple beat reporters concluded would have been the greatest comeback in his 22 years on the North Broad campus.
Then it all imploded.
First, Mardy Collins, who had played another solid offensive game (16 points), missed a runner in the lane and then committed a bad foul on Art Bowers. The UMass guard hit one of two free throws to cut the deficit to 65-63.
Micheal Blackshear, who had a solid game on the backboards (7 rebounds, 6 offensive), missed the front end of a one-and-one. Bowers, who led the Minutemen with a career-high 19 points, drained a three-pointer from the left wing with 42 seconds on the clock to put UMass up one, 66-65.
Unable to find Hawkins as UMass tightened its defense on the nation's seventh-leading scorer, Collins again drove the lane. The 6-6 guard turned the ball over trying to find Tyreek Byard on the wing in the closing seconds and UMass prevailed.
"It really hurts because this is the second time we came back real hard," Collins said. "We did it against Dayton. We just have to start getting off to better starts, but when we do come back like that we have to learn to how finish games off."
Hawkins, who hit seven-of-14 from the field in the second half, upped his streak to 10 straight games of 20-or-more points. He passed current assistant coach Mark Macon and Terence Stansbury for the longest such streak in the Chaney Era.
Sophomore Antywane Robinson tallied a season-high 11 points. He played only six minutes in the second half as Chaney relegated him to the bench in favor of Dion Dacons, who did a solid job of screening to free Hawkins.
Two other starters, Keith Butler (0 pts, 2 rebs.) and Dustin Salisbery (1-8 FGs, 2 pts.), also spent almost the entire second half on the bench.
"Coming from 23 points behind is very difficult," stated Chaney. "It was beyond me how we even came back, with Antywane Robinson and Keith Butler and Dustin (Salisbery) sitting there (on the bench). They did not give us anything."
At halftime of the game, ESPN announced its Silver Anniversary Atlantic 10 Conference team. Macon, the Owls' all-time leading scorer, was named to the five-man squad along with Saint Joseph's Jameer Nelson, Xavier's David West and UMass' Lou Roe and Marcus Camby.
So Temple, 6-9, 1-4 in Atlantic 10 play, will now have to rebound from its worst loss of the season. The Owls will host St. Bonaventure in its next game (Jan. 28, 7:00 p.m.) before meeting third-ranked and unbeaten Saint Joseph's on Saturday (4:00 p.m.) at the Liacouras Center.
