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Friday, Mar. 16 12:30pm ET
No. 11 Owls build 19-point lead at half

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) – John Chaney is tough to please.

Temple upset Texas 79-65 in the first round of the NCAA South Regional on Friday, playing short-handed and holding the Longhorns to 39 percent shooting.

Fri, March 16
Does anybody doubt that John Chaney, out of the City of Brotherly Love, deserves to be in the Hall of Fame?

Playing with a limited bench he took on Texas and got a brilliant performance from his backcourt tandem of Lynn Greer and Quincy Wadley. They had 45 points between them and Greer was a Bo Derek, 10-for-10, from the free-throw line.

The Temple matchup zone was really able to shut down Marice Evans. He was 1-for-9 from behind the arc.

More ...

The Temple coach, however, wants more.

"To me, this isn't as good of a defensive team as we've had in the past," Chaney said. "At one point, we began to play an attack-like type of defense, but we couldn't stay with it very long because they started to penetrate against us. But when we shoot the ball well, like we did today, it cures a lot of ills."

Quincy Wadley got hot early and the Temple's defense played well enough to send the Owls into the second round for the second straight year.

Wadley scored 23 points – 20 in the first half, when he made 4-for-5 from 3-point range – to carry the 11th-seeded Owls.

"We established the way the game was going to be played early," Wadley said. "We forced our style of play on them."

The sixth-seeded Longhorns, who won their final six regular-season games, made only 6 of 21 3-pointers and 7 of 12 free throws.

"They played well, they played hard and they limited us to one shot," Texas' Chris Owens said. "Basically, they were good and we weren't aggressive enough."

The victory came after one of Chaney's toughest seasons. He kicked two players off the team, watched injuries shrink his roster to eight scholarship players and had the longest losing streak in his career – seven.

David Hawkins
Temple's David Hawkins gets past Chris Owens in the first half and finished with 12 points and nine rebounds for the Owls.

Until Temple rebounded from its midseason problems and won the Atlantic 10 tournament, it appeared the Owls would miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 12 years, only the second time in 19.

Temple used only seven players to 10 for Texas.

When Texas shut down Wadley in the second half, Lynn Greer stepped up, scoring 17 of his 19 points. Greer made 10 of 10 from the foul line and had six assists. David Hawkins added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Owls and Alex Wesby had 12 points.

Temple made 10 of 26 3-point baskets, the most allowed this season by Texas.

"People talk about their defense, but that's what they do," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "They are a 3-point shooting team and they made some tough shots. We were so bad in the first half on the offensive end that we didn't have an answer for it."

Darren Kelly and Owens each scored 15 points for Texas. Kelly also had 10 rebounds, closing his career with his first double-double.

Marice Evans, averaging 15.8 points a game for Texas, was held to 10 on 4-for-16 shooting, including 1 of 9 from 3-point range.

Temple took the lead a minute into the game on Wadley's first 3-pointer and was ahead 41-22 at the half. Texas shot 28 percent in the first half, making only one of seven 3-point shots.

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AUDIO/VIDEO
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 Lynn Greer breaks down Temple's zone defense.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6

 John Chaney comments on his team's shooting percentage against Texas.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6


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