Temple Takes Big Early Lead, Holds off Princeton Late for 60-47 Victory
December 06, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 6, 2005
Box Score
Princeton showed signs of life against Temple's vaunted matchup zone defense in the second half of its game against the Owls Tuesday night. Unfortunately, the Tigers' comeback effort was a case of too little, too late.
Antywane Robinson scored 14 points to lead four Temple players in double figures and Mardy Collins had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists as the Owls saw what was a 20-point lead dwindle to single digits before extending for a 60-47 win over the Tigers before 2,725 at Jadwin Gym.
Princeton (1-3) trailed by as many as 20 points twice in the second half but got hot from long range late in the game, cutting a 17-point deficit to just eight at 54-46 with 4:06 left thanks to two three-pointers by Noah Savage and another by Kyle Koncz. But Koncz missed another long-range attempt that would have brought the Tigers within five points with 3:20 left and Princeton never got any closer.
Savage led Princeton in scoring for the fifth-straight game with a career-high 21 points, shooting 8 for 17 from the field.
The Tigers took 30 of their 38 shot attempts from outside the arc, making 11 of their three-point attempts.
"It's difficult to figure out how you're going to get inside shots against their zone, they're very good at it," said Princeton head coach Joe Scott. "Sometimes those are the opportunities that are there, and we did a better job of getting better three-point looks later in the game."
"We don't have a lot of experience in terms of guys who have played a lot of minutes, so I know the team depends on me to score," said Savage, who is averaging better than 16 points per game through five games. "I didn't really shoot the ball that well tonight, but we did a better job of moving the ball in the second half to get better shots." Temple (4-2) took a double-digit first-half lead thanks to a long scoring drought by the Tigers, who scored the game's first six points but never led after the 12-minute mark of the first half. The Tigers (1-3) scored just three field goals in the final nine minutes of the half and fell behind 25-15 at halftime. Then, the Owls scored nine straight points early in the second half to take a 42-22 lead with 13 minutes left.
Princeton played most of the game without starting guard Scott Greenman, who played just seven minutes due to a back injury suffered early in the day. Sophomore Kevin Steuerer, who had played just six career minutes, came off the bench to play 33 minutes in place of Greenman, and he had five assists and two rebounds.
Mark Tyndale added 13 points for Temple, while Dustin Salisbery had 12 poitns. The Owls shot 58% in the second half and 50% (21 for 42) for the game.
Temple was making its first appearance at Jadwin Gym under head coach John Chaney. The Owls' previous appearance at Jadwin came in 1973, nine years before Chaney arrived at Temple.
Princeton had 13 assists on its 15 baskets but committed 15 turnovers, including nine in the first half. The Tigers took a 6-0 early lead on threes by Savage and Geoff Kestler before Temple finally got on the board thanks to a Collins jumper 5:18 into the game, beginning a 10-0 Temple run that gave the Owls the lead for good.