Temple University Athletics
MEN'S BASKETBALL TOPS PRINCETON, 60-47
12.6.05 | Men's Basketball
PRINCETON, NJ -- Temple head coach John Chaney has visited a lot of arenas during his illustrious 34-year career. But before tonight, he had never coached at Princeton's Jadwin Gym. After the Owls held off a late Tiger rally to capture a hard-fought 60-47 win, the Hall of Famer might never visit the cozy venue again.
"Princeton has a great history and a great tradition," Chaney said after improving to 2-0 all-time against the Ivy League school. "But I'm not coming back."
The last time the two teams met at Jadwin was on January 16, 1973. Princeton, under Pete Carril, defeated Harry Litwack's squad, 43-37, in a battle of two future Hall of Fame coaches.
Senior Antywane Robinson paced four Owls in double-figures with a 14 points and a team-high six rebounds, while sophomore Mark Tyndale added 13. Junior Dustin Salisbery scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half and senior Mardy Collins connected for 11.
Even after a 25-6 Temple run midway through the first half erased a 6-0 deficit early on, the Cherry and White (4-2) never looked completely comfortable on offense. The Owls did hit on 7-for-8 from the field to open the second half and stretched the lead to as many as 20 with 13:15 to play.
Holding a 52-34 advantage with 6:22 to play, it looked safe to say that the visitors would win their first back-to-back games of the season. Princeton, however, thought otherwise. The hosts made four three-pointers in a span of under two minutes, all while holding Temple without a field goal, to cut the deficit to 54-47 with 2:32 to play.
But the Tigers would not score the rest of the way, missing a trio of shots to fall to 1-4 on the season. A junior Dion Dacons dunk with 26 seconds to play was the only Temple field goal during the final six minutes.
Temple continued its success when holding opponents under 50 points, extending the streak to 60 straight wins. The last time the Owls lost when keeping their opponent under the half-century mark was a 49-41 loss to Oklahoma State on December 30, 1995.
Chaney's team also shot over 50% from the floor for the second time this season (21-for-42) and has now won 45 consecutive contests when out-shooting its foes.
Princeton lived and died by the three-ball, taking 30 shots from behind the arc and just eight from inside it. The Tigers were streaky, to say the least, with the long-range shot. After hitting the first two long-balls to open a 6-0 lead right out of the gates, the Black and Orange missed nine of its next ten three-pointers to close out the half.
"I think they executed quite well, swung the ball and found their sit-down shooters open," Chaney said. "If we played them man, they still would have shot as many threes."
Noah Savage scored 21 points to lead all-scorers for Princeton, which lost its fourth straight home game for the first time since Jadwin opened in 1969.
The Cherry and White return to action on Saturday against #22/19 Alabama at the Liacouras Center. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN2. New head football coach Al Golden will address the crowd during the second media timeout of the first half.
