Louisville hands Temple its fourth straight loss

IT'S GENERALLY not a good sign when a coach feels the need to use three of his timeouts in the game's opening 16 minutes.

Or when his team shoots 34 percent in the first half, while the opponent is converting at a rate of 62.

But Louisville is the defending national champion, and ranked 13th, even without Chane Behanan (suspended) and Kevin Ware (injured). And Temple has celebrated once since Christmas.

Last night at the Liacouras Center, in a game that was rescheduled from Thursday because of the weather, the Cardinals (20-4, 9-2 American Athletic Conference), playing for the first time in 9 days, led by 27 at halftime and went home with an 82-58 victory.

On the day that Temple great Guy Rodgers finally made it into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the Owls (6-17, 1-10) lost their fourth straight, all by double digits.

And the journey doesn't figure to get easier. Tomorrow, they host Larry Brown and No. 23 SMU, which just beat them by 23 in Houston. After that, it's No. 24 Connecticut, which beat them by 24 up there late last month. Then they go to No. 20 Memphis, which beat them by 10 here in early January. And they'll close the month at Louisville on the 27th.

The Sixers might have a tough time getting a split against that foursome.

"That's the way life is," Owls coach Fran Dunphy said.

It was 52-25 after 20 minutes, at which point Luke Hancock and Montrezl Harrell had combined for 26 for the visitors, who had twice as many field goals (20) on only three more attempts.

"I wish I knew [the answers]," said Owls junior lead guard Will Cummings, who had 11 of his team-high 16 in the second half, nine in the final 6 minutes. "We just have to make sure we get stops. That's how we're putting ourselves in holes that we can't get out of."

The Cardinals, who do this to a lot of teams, got a career-best 22 out of Harrell, who also had 10 rebounds and four blocks. Russ Smith had 15 on 7-for-10 shots in 26 minutes. Wayne Blackshear had 13 in 24 off the bench. Hancock didn't score in the second half, but, by then, he'd already been largely responsible for helping to shut down Temple's top scorer, Dalton Pepper, who finished with only seven, 10 below his average, on 3-for-10 shooting.

"They have guys who do some really good things at both ends," Dunphy said. "They're obviously ranked for a reason."

Owls forward Anthony Lee, who didn't return after his knee buckled midway through the second half, had 14 points, but only three boards, six fewer than usual.

"It's a little sore," he said. "I wanted to come in, but there was no need to."

This was the teams' first meeting since the 2002 NIT. Louisville will leave the AAC after this inaugural season for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Coach Rick Pitino hadn't shaved for 2 days. The team is growing beards.

"Until we lose," he explained. "I'm doing this for the first time in my life. When I look in the mirror, I see different colors coming in. I hope we can grow some full ones. Let's see what type of streak we can get on . . .

"I thought our guys were extremely focused on getting the job done. It's been a long time [since we played]. We don't pay attention to records. We just play hard and give it every bit that we have. All the guys did a lot of good things."

The Cards had only seven turnovers, two in the first half, when Temple had eight of its 11.

"We didn't turn it over the backcourt, at all," Dunphy noted. "But they hurry you up. That wears you down. And they got some easy shots off of mistakes we made in the frontcourt."

Pitino understands what Dunphy, a friend, is going through.

"It's a rebuilding year," he said. "Fran Dunphy is one of the pre-eminent coaches in our game. It's been a tough season. I always put him in the top 10, in every discussion. He'll get it going again, because he is that good."

At this point, that can't come soon enough. At least in the first half of the season the Owls lost mostly close ones. The next 2 weeks will continue to test them in many ways. It's about time to come up with some solutions. Or else things probably won't be much different any time soon.

That definitely wouldn't be a good sign.