Temple survives scare from Penn

LAST NIGHT was the earliest Big 5 teams had ever played each other. One of these years, two of them will meet on Halloween. Or maybe even Columbus Day. Heck, if they're as good as this one, they can do it on the Fourth of July.

And if the rest of the season is anything like it, this will be some ride.

Temple was probably supposed to win last night at the Palestra. But somebody forgot to tell Penn, which never trailed by more than six points (in the first half), rallied to go ahead by one with just over a minute to go, had a chance to win on the final play of regulation and was up three with a little more than a minute left in overtime.

In the end, none of that mattered. The Owls, playing without the injured Scootie Randall (still recovering from offseason knee surgery) and the suspended Khalif Wyatt (one game for playing in an unsanctioned summer-league game), figured out a way to get it done, 73-67. It ended with an intentional-foul call and a subsequent technical on Penn coach Jerome Allen. But that shouldn't take away from what for most of the 45 minutes was some intense hoops, something this city can often produce even when you least expect it.

"This is typical in a sense that anytime you play [each other] it can come down to the wire," said Penn's Zack Rosen, who topped everyone with 27 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the arc. "It's really frustrating. Against a team probably no one thought we had a shot to beat, we believed we were good enough to win.

"Why ever come out if you want to hang close? We played Temple to overtime. So what? What does that mean? We lost."

The Quakers, who'd opened with a 14-point win over Maryland-Baltimore County on Friday, were down four with 2 1/2 minutes remaining. But Rosen nailed his fifth trey at 1:18 to make it 57-56, Penn. Eight seconds later, Ramone Moore (15 points on 20 shots) made one of two free throws to tie things. Tyler Bernardini's left-wing jumper went in and out, after T.J. DiLeo had blocked a Rosen attempt from nearly the same spot. Juan Fernandez was called for carrying the ball at 7.1, and Penn managed to get a Bernardini three from the right side that hit off the rim. It was 57-all heading into overtime.

And so they played some more. Nobody seemed to mind too much.

"I'm just glad we got the win, obviously," said DiLeo, who had a career-best 10 points in a career-high 38 minutes off the bench. "My role is at the defensive end first. That's how I gauge my game, by how well I play defense and if the team wins overall.''

Fernandez, who hit the game-winning shot in last year's opening-round, NCAA Tournament win over Penn State, had a team-best 19 points. It was his trifecta from straightaway with 20 seconds to go that extended Temple's advantage to five.

"Things happen," he said, referring to Randall and Wyatt. "They happened to us last year [losing two starters late with injuries]. We're going to need [Randall] if we're going to do some big things later on. But you can't sit back and say, 'OK, we don't have Khalif, what are we going to do?' "

With Temple's lead down to two, DiLeo was fouled by Miles Cartwright on an inbounds play with 7.1 seconds left. It was ruled intentional, meaning the Owls retained possession after DiLeo missed two free throws. When Allen argued the foul wasn't intentional, he drew a tech, and Fernandez made both free throws.

"I told the [official] that games don't come down to one possession," said Allen, who went head to head with Temple's Fran Dunphy, his former coach at Penn. "In this case, it was a 45-minute game. I just thought [that call] was bad for the game. Do I believe it was wrong? Absolutely. I'm not saying it lost the game. But it was a bad call. I'll stand by that."

The Quakers had only one other double-digit scorer. That was sophomore center Fran Dougherty, with 10. And he didn't have a field goal in the closing 20 minutes. Only four others scored, three with eight and the other six.

Temple, playing its first game in 4 years without Lavoy Allen, got 10 points from Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson, who went 5-for-6, and nine points and 10 rebounds from Micheal Eric, in his first game since injuring his knee last February.

The Owls now head to San Juan for three games in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tourney, where they'll open Thursday against Western Michigan. That same night, Penn travels to Rider.

"We have the makings of a solid team, we're just a little short at this point," said Dunphy, who's now beaten his former team five straight times. "We'll face great tests the rest of this week.

"For the third year in a row, Penn probably played better. We just scored more points."