Temple University Athletics
Temple University
Cornell (NCAA 1st Rd)
#12/13 Temple Falls To Cornell, 78-65, in the NCAA Tournament
3.19.10 | Men's Basketball
Owls' miraculous season ends at hands of hot-shooting Big Red
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JACKSONVILLE, FL - The 12/13 Temple Owls' magical season came to an untimely end Friday afternoon at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in the first round of the NCAA Tournament with a 78-65 loss to the Cornell Big Red. The fifth-seeded Owls, which had their 10-game win streak snapped, end the year at 29-6 while 12-seeded Cornell (28-4) advances to the second round of the East Region to take on #4 seed Wisconsin which edged #13-seed Wofford, 53-49.
"I give great, great credit to Cornell," Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said. "They played great. They deserved to win the game. Their guys stepped up and made shots when they had to. Again, any time we were thinking about making a run as we just talked about in the first part of the second half we were pretty good on the offensive end, and we just couldn't stop them."
Cornell, coached by Dunphy's former 10-year assistant at Penn, Steve Donahue, blistered the nets in the first half. The Big Red shot 13-of-19 from the floor (68.4%) in the opening 20 minutes, taking a 37-29 lead at intermission.
Temple, which held the nation's top three-point shooting team to just 2-of-7 in the first half, connected on 11-of-22 from the field to stay close.
The Owls opened the second half on fire, scoring on eight of their first nine possessions, but the hot shooting of Ivy League Player of the Year Ryan Wittman (20 points), kept the Cornell lead at seven, 51-44, with 14:28 to play. Wittman drained three of his four treys in that stretch, all from well behind the arc.
"I think we did a number of really good things (during that stretch)," Dunphy said. "I just think you have to give credit to Cornell. And again, a couple of those jumpers by Wittman were no time and no space, they were just catch and shoot. Sometimes there's no defense for that."
Cornell then went on a 16-4 run led by senior playmaker Louis Dale, who scored eight of his game-high 21 points during the game-breaking six-minute stretch. It was Dale's three-pointer that ended the run, making it 66-48 with 8:53 remaining.
The Owls never got closer than 14 the remainder of the contest as the senior-laden three-time Ivy Champs advanced over the three-time A-10 Champs.
Senior Ryan Brooks shared the Owls' scoring lead with sophomore Juan Fernandez, tallying 14 points in his final collegiate game. Junior Lavoy Allen added 11 points and four assists while senior Luis Guzman made four-of-six from the field to finish his career with nine points.
Allen became the first Temple Owl to average a double-double for the season (11.5 ppg./10.7 rpg.) since Ollie Johnson did it in 1970-71.
The Owls shot 51.9 percent (27-52) for the game, marking the first time Temple lost a game this season when shooting over 40 percent. They had won all 24 games this season when topping that mark.
