Temple University Athletics
UMASS HOLDS TEMPLE TO LOWEST POINT TOTAL SINCE 1973 IN POSTING 60-34 WIN
1.21.06 | Men's Basketball
-- Thankfully Temple coach John Chaney does not like to celebrate birthdays, because his 74th is one he would like to forget. Massachusetts, behind the perimeter play of Lawrence Carrier (17 points) and Jeff Viggiano (17 points) and a solid zone defense, defeated the Owls, 60-34, at the Mullins Center in front of 8,127 fans and a national television audience. The point total was the lowest by a Temple team since an 11-6 loss at Tennessee on December 15, 1973. Temple falls to 9-7, 3-3 in the Atlantic 10 while UMass improves to 9-6, 4-1.
"Our guys had trouble making baskets and trying to get the ball to the shooters," said Chaney. "They made a couple of field goals in the early portion of the game and then they continue to look for "I" instead of "we". That is a problem. Shooting has been a problem for us all year."
It started off well for the Owls as Temple took a 7-2 lead with 16:55 to play. Following a tip-in by Stephane Lasme and two made free throws by Rashaun Freeman, Dustin Salisbery worked his way in for a lay-up to make it 10-6. The Owls, four-of-six from the field at that point (15:06), would make two more field goals (18 FGA) the rest of the half.
The Minutemen, who won their 11th straight home game, did not start to take charge until Carrier came off the bench. The sophomore forward, who entered the contest with a 3.9 scoring average, drained all three of his three-pointers in the stanza, the final two capping an 8-0 run to end the half. That gave UMass a 29-15 advantage at the break.
The second half started out exactly the same way. Temple connected on just one of its first 11 attempts (0-5 3PT) to open the frame and trailed 43-18 with 11:01 to play. This time it was Viggiano, the senior captain, who took control. The UMass guard scored 11 of his team's first 14 points in the stanza, draining three three-pointers.
All that was left was the final mind-numbing numbers.
Temple shot a season-low 26.5 percent (13-49) from the field and an even more dismal 10 percent (2-20) from long range. The A-10's worst free throw shooting team was able to make just 40 percent (6-15) from the charity stripe to drop its season percentage to 59.2 percent.
"In all my years I have never had a team that couldn't shoot foul shots like this," said Chaney.
The Owl coach credited the play of freshman guard Chris Lowe for the team's offensive performance. The rookie point guard dished nine assists while handling the Cherry and White zone (2 turnovers) like a veteran.
"The little kid did a great job of penetrating our pressure and passing the ball," said Chaney. "They then got into a good rhythm of shooting the ball."
UMass was as hot from the field as Temple was cold. The Minutemen made 21-of-41 field goals (51.2%) and nine-of-19 from three-point range (47.4%). All this with their top player, Freeman (15.7 ppg./8.9 rpg.), on the bench mired in foul trouble for most of the contest (21 minutes played).
Mardy Collins, who played through a sprained right foot, Mark Tyndale, Antywane Robinson and Salisbery each had eight points to lead Temple.
The Owls need to regroup in a hurry as they play host to the A-10 co-leader Xavier Wednesday night (7:00 p.m.) at the Liacouras Center.
