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Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Temple
Philadelphia Heartbreak: Tigers Fall at Temple, 48-46
December 20, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2004
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - Princeton thought it had overtime. Instead, when Will Venable's game-tying layup attempt just before the buzzer was ruled to have been blocked cleanly, the Tigers fell just short at Temple in a game that might have started slowly but certainly got better as it went along.
The Owls' 48-46 win over the Tigers before 3,859 at the Liacouras Center and an ESPN2 national television audience certainly wasn't over until a tumultuous final play, but Princeton head coach Joe Scott knew that the game, and the result, had a lot more to it than that.
"Temple won because Mardy Collins did some terrific things and other players stepped up and made plays when they had to," said Scott. "They make it very difficult to score." Despite Collins' game-high 25 points, the Tigers (5-3) made a stirring comeback from a double-digit second-half deficit. Cold-shooting Princeton trailed by as many as 11 points with 11 minutes left, 34-23 and fell behind again by double digits at 38-28 with 7:49 on the clock.
But that's when the comeback began, spurred on by two big three-point shots, the first a long bomb from Judson Wallace that pulled Princeton within seven points and the next a Noah Savage shot from the corner with 5:40 left that pulled the Tigers within 40-36. On Temple's next possession, Wallace stole the ball from Collins and fed a streaking Venable for an easy layup that cut the Temple lead to 40-38 and capped a 7-0 Princeton run.
After the Owls appeared to have taken control again at 44-39 after Collins converted a three-point play in the lane, Princeton stayed in it thanks to two more huge three-pointers, both from Scott Greenman. His first off an unsettled situation with 1:07 left pulled Princeton within 45-43, and his next off a nice feed from Venable made the score 47-46 Temple with just 14 seconds left.
Collins then made one of two free throws on the other end for Temple, setting up a final Princeton opportunity. The Tigers inbounded the ball on the right sideline with seven seconds left, and Venable then drove the lane on the game's final play.
Venable and Savage each had 12 points to lead Princeton, which took 26 of its 39 shots from three-point range but made just seven of those shots (27%). Wallace had all nine of his points in the second half and added a game-high seven rebounds, while Greenman had seven assists for Princeton.
Both teams struggled to find good opportunities against zone defenses in the first half, with neither team reaching double digits until Mike Stephens' hook shot in the lane with 7:29 on the clock gave the Tigers a 10-8 lead. Princeton led 16-15 after Savage's second three-pointer of the game with 2:14 on the first-half clock, but Temple then scored seven of the final nine points of the half to take a 22-18 halftime lead.
The game was the 1,000th career game for Temple head coach John Chaney, who had never faced Princeton prior to tonight. The Tigers and Owls were meeting for the first time since the 1974-75 season.