MHERST - Now you know why some coaches say they don't care much
for being ranked.
MHERST - Now you know why some coaches say they don't care much
for being ranked.
No sooner did the University of Massachusetts march back into the Top 25 after a yearlong absence - No. 23 in the Associated Press poll - than it suffered its most humiliating loss of the season.
Temple, playing without injured point guard Pepe Sanchez, stunned UMass, 61-47, last night before a sellout crowd of 9,493 at Mullins Center - many of whom flocked to the exits long before the final buzzer.
Center Lamont Barnes had 18 points to lead the Owls, who improved to 13-6 overall, 6-3 in the Atlantic 10. It was Temple's first win over the Minutemen in seven meetings and its first ever at Mullins after eight tries.
The loss snapped a 10-game winning streak for UMass (16-6, 8-1), which was taken completely out of its game by a much smaller opponent, trailing by as many as 19 in the second half.
UMass had its lowest point total since moving into Mullins in 1993.
After trailing by as many as 10 in the first half, the Minutemen rallied within 2, 26-24, at intermission. But Temple got off to a torrid start in the second half. The Owls sank three consecutive 3-point baskets from the right wing, the last by guard Lynn Greer, to go ahead, 39-26.
The Minutemen don't have much time to recover. They travel to Cincinnati to play Xavier Sunday.
UMass fans began the ''Lari, Lari'' chant before the game, in honor of center Lari Ketner, who scored a career-high 33 points Sunday against Dayton. But he got off to a horrible start.
After batting the opening tip to teammate Charlton Clarke, Ketner missed an alley-oop dunk attempt. On Temple's first possession, center Lamont Barnes hit a 5-foot turnaround jumper over Ketner.
Ketner soon picked up his first foul, trying to stop Barnes, who scored on a bank shot. A minute later, he was called for traveling. Then he picked up his second foul with 15:18 left in the half and went to the bench.
His teammates did better, tying it at 10-10 on a hook shot by Tyrone Weeks. But Temple went on an 11-1 run to go ahead, 21-11.
The Minutemen looked out of sync in a game that was played at Temple's pace; contrary to Ketner's contention that Temple's guards would not provide leadership without injured starter Pepe Sanchez, the Owls were effective in a three-guard rotation against UMass backcourt pressure.
 Ajmal Basit doesn't hold back after rejecting Lamont Barnes. |
But Temple matched such physical play with aggressive defense, stunning the partisan UMass crowd.
Mack hit a trey to pull UMass to 21-14, ending an 8:21 stretch without a field goal, but Greer put the Owls back up by 9 with a left wing jumper.
The Minutemen then put together their best run of the half, starting with four free throws to pull to 25-20. After a Temple inbounds turnover, UMass forward Chris Kirkland tipped in a Mack miss to get to 25-22.
Temple hit just one of four free throws in the remainder of the half, and Clarke hit a running jumper with seven seconds left to get UMass within 26-24 at halftime.
MHERST, Mass. -- The Temple
Owls pulled off their biggest win of the season last night, when they
needed it the most, in the most surprising place of all.
Typical Temple. The Owls won in a building they never had won in before, without the guard that UMass had said they couldn't do without.
And they made it look easy.
If the Owls hear their name on NCAA Selection Sunday, they may think of this 61-47 victory over Massachusetts as the game that got them there.
But Owls coach John Chaney wasn't thinking in those terms.
"It's a big win, because Pepe [ Sanchez ] was not here," Chaney said. "It's big for the growth of our young people, to win without your leader."
Nothing about this game was predictable. Going into the Mullins Center, UMass had won 10 games in a row, had just moved into the top 25 for the first time since early last season, and had beaten Temple in 12 of their last 13 meetings.
 Mike Babul plays keep away. |
Minutes kept ticking off the clock, and Temple's lead held steady. Massachusetts' shots kept clanging off the rim. Even when the Minutemen (16-6, 8-1) got second chances, they couldn't take advantage.
Meanwhile, Temple looked calmer and calmer as the game wore on. The place was eerily quiet. UMass center Lari Ketner had just four points. His Temple counterpart, Lamont Barnes, led all scorers with 18.
Ahead by two points at halftime, Temple went on a 10-2 run in barely more than three minutes. Barnes and Lynard Stewart scored inside. Rasheed Brokenborough hit a three with the shot clock expiring. Then he hit another one, forcing UMass coach Bruiser Flint to burn a 20-second time-out.
Still, the Minutemen couldn't score, even when they were hitting the offensive boards. Lynn Greer tossed in a three-pointer to give Temple a 39-26 lead with 15 minutes, 19 seconds left.
Sanchez was out for his second straight game with a sprained ankle, and Chaney showed a new starting lineup, going to a more physical group to combat the Minutemen.
Keaton Sanders and Quincy Wadley got their first career starts, and Julian Dunkley and Greer came off the bench. Just before the tipoff, Sanchez was chattering away at Wadley, who would run the team.
On Sunday, after UMass had beaten Dayton, Ketner volunteered what he thought would happen to the Owls without Sanchez.
"I think the guards they have, I know them from back home. I don't think they're ready to play a whole game against us," the Roman Catholic High graduate said. "I don't think they'll have leadership."
The opening minutes didn't go exactly as Ketner planned. Guarding Barnes, he picked up two fouls in the first five minutes and ended up scoring just one follow-up basket in the first half. This, after he had scored 33 points Sunday, his 21st birthday.
With UMass not getting anything inside, the Owls jumped out quickly. Down by 11-10, they went on an 11-0 run, scoring on five straight possessions. With 7:56 left in the half, UMass had shot 28 percent against Temple's switching zones, and Ketner was scoreless. At that point, the Owls didn't have any turnovers.
But that didn't last. The Owls turned the ball over a couple of times in the half-court, then threw it out of bounds against full-court pressure. A 25-16 lead with 5:20 left kept dwindling.
Temple went almost four minutes without scoring, missing three free throws during that time. At halftime, Temple still clung to a 26-24 lead. Barnes had 11 points and, more important, no fouls. But UMass was within a basket despite not getting any scoring inside.
MHERST, Mass. -- John Chaney
has obviously won a lot of critical
games in his 16 Hall of Fame seasons
of coaching at Temple. But this one
was about as good as it gets.
Temple 61, Massachusetts 47, at the Mullins Center, where the Owls were 0-7.
After losing the first 21 games in this series, UMass, which is ranked No. 23, had won six in succession, 13 of the last 15, and nine straight at home.
The Owls (13-6, 6-3 Atlantic 10), had lost their last two, and were playing without starting lead guard Pepe Sanchez (sprained ankle). The Minutemen (16-6, 8-1) had won their last 10.
Maybe this game is not supposed to make sense.
"I just know we needed to win a game," Chaney said. "We came close against Xavier [ at home on Saturday ] , and we lost at the end at Dayton before that. So we had to find a way to teach the lesson that they can win if they huff and puff a little, too. This means so much for their growth."
This is probably Temple's biggest win since it beat top-ranked Kansas at the Meadowlands in December 1995, a win that went a long way in getting the Owls into the NCAA Tournament. This victory figures to have the same effect, for a young squad that faces a treacherous stretch run.
"Any time you lose a key member of your family, it makes the game that much more important," junior guard Rasheed Brokenborough said of Sanchez's absence. "We all have to think we can win without him. It's a conference game. At the end of the year, this is going to help us a lot."
The Owls scored 11 straight points to take a 21-11 lead. Their advantage was 25-16 with 5 1/2 minutes left in the first half, but they managed only one free throw the rest of the way, and it was 26-24 at the break.
In their last two games, the Owls got killed in the first few minutes of the second half. But this time, they scored 13 of the first 15 points. And the UMass run never came. The Minutemen were down 11 with 11 minutes to go, 12 with 9 1/2 minutes left and 13 with 4:49 showing.
The silence was eerie.
 Temple's Rasheed Brokenborough is determined to get past Chris Kirkland. |
On Sunday, UMass center Lari Ketner, a Roman Catholic High product, said he didn't think Temple's other guards could handle the additional pressure. Guess he was wrong.
"Of course, he was going to say that," Brokenborough said. "They're always trying to put us down. They're a rah-rah team. They only play when the crowd's into the game. Once we established control, that never really happened."
Chaney gave sophomores Quincy Wadley and Keaton Sanders their first career starts in place of freshman Lynn Greer and soph Julian Dunkley. Wadley had seven points in 23 minutes, but his defensive presence made a difference. Sanders had four points in 30 minutes before fouling out. He, too, supplied some solid help on UMass's big men. Greer came in to score 11 on 4-for-8 shooting, to go with five rebounds.
Lamont Barnes had 18 points, nine boards, two blocks and two steals. Brokenborough had 16 points, six boards, four assists and no turnovers. They played a combined 79 minutes.
"It wasn't me having a good game against them, it was a good game for the team. It was a big win," Barnes said.
The Owls turned the ball over only eight times, shot 47.7 percent from the field against one of the nation's top defensive teams and held their own off the glass. It didn't seem to matter that they missed 12 of 27 foul shots or took only seven three-pointers.
UMass shot 30.4 percent from the floor against one of the country's best defensive teams. Ketner and Tyrone Weeks combined for six points on 13 shots. Two days earlier, Ketner had a career-high 33 against Dayton. Temple dared the Minutemen to beat it from the perimeter. They couldn't. The Owls do that to a lot of teams. They just haven't done it against this team in a while.
"What's our total record against them?" asked Chaney, who knows better than anyone the Owls once owned a 21-zip lead in the A-10's marquee matchup. "They've still got to catch up . . .
"We forced them to shoot outside, which is what we've always done. It's just that for years, they've made them."
The Owls host Virginia Tech Sunday and Fordham on Feb. 12. Sanchez should be back to 100 percent by the time they visit Rhode Island on Feb. 12. They've already lost to the Rams at home. There's also a trip to St. Bonaventure, where the Owls got waxed last season. And a trip to George Washington. And a home game against St. Joseph's, which they beat in overtime at the Palestra. On the final weekend, they play Maryland in Baltimore and host UMass less than 24 hours later.
They have few gimmes left, which makes this win even more significant.
"I told Pepe that if he had played, we probably would have lost," Chaney said." . . . Remember, for years, we came up here and won."
Finally, it's no longer a distant memory.
MHERST-- So what if UMass had won 10 in a row to leap into the
nation's Top 25, and had never, ever, lost to Temple at the Mullins
Center.
The Owls didn't give a hoot.
Temple's matchup zone gave the 23rd-ranked Minutemen fits in a 61-47 upset victory here last night.
Lamont Barnes scored 18 points and Rasheed Brokenborough had 16 as the Owls handed UMass its first Atlantic 10 loss.
UMass fell to 8-1 atop the A-10 East, a game ahead of Rhode Island, and 16-6 overall. Temple, which had been 0-7 at the Mullins Center, snapped its two-game losing streak to improve to 6-3 in the A-10 East and 13-6 overall.
Charlton Clarke led UMass with 14 points. The Minutemen shot only 30.4 percent while Temple shot 47.7 percent.
 Bruiser Flint saw no reason to smile as Temple rolled. |
Lynard Stewart opened the surge with a layup. Brokenborough drained back-to-back treys and Lynn Greer followed with a 3-pointer of his own with 15:19 left. Lari Ketner's put-back with 14:40 ended the Owls' run, but another Brokenborough jumper and a Keaton Sanders foul shot put Temple up by 14, 42-28, with 12:54 remaining.
Greer, a freshman starting his second consecutive game at point guard in place on the injured Pepe Sanchez, increased Temple's lead to 16, 49-33, with a jumper with 7:56 left. He finished with 11 points.
The Owls so frustrated the sellout crowd that UMass coach Bruiser Flint had to grab the microphone at center court with 10 minutes left to warn the fans to stop throwing things onto the court. With 3/4 minutes left, the frustration got to Flint and he was slapped with a technical foul. Greer hit one of two at the line to put Temple's lead at 56-39.
As good as UMass has played defense this season, Temple has been even better. The Owls showed why last night. Temple, with its matchup zone, leads the league in scoring defense (61.2 ppg) and field goal percentage defense (37.4). UMass, with a stifling man-to-man, is second in both categories (62.3 ppg and 38.3).
The Owls swarmed all over the Minutemen's big men down low and didn't let Monty Mack, UMass' leading scorer, hurt them from the outside. Mack hit a 3-pointer late in the game to finish with 11 points.
UMass had been 10-0 in 1998, outscoring the opposition by 14.7 points a game, to climb to 16th in the latest Ratings Percentage Index, used to select the NCAA Tournament field.
Temple won the first 21 games between the two schools, but UMass bounced back to win six straight and 13 of the last 15 meetings prior to last night. The Minutemen had outscored the Owls by an average score of 70-52 during the six-game streak.
Barnes scored 11 points in the first half as Temple grabbed a 26-24 lead. It was the first time UMass trailed at the half in seven games, or since its Jan. 15 contest against North Carolina Charlotte.
It was the eighth time this season that Temple held an opponent to less than 30 points in the first half and the 16th time it limited one to less than 40 percent shooting before intermission.
Temple limited UMass to 30.8 percent shooting (8 of 26) in the first half while hitting 45.5 percent (10 of 22) of its own shots.
Ketner, coming off a career-high 33-point performance against Dayton Sunday on his 21st birthday, picked up two fouls in the first 4:42 half and played only nine minutes in the first half.
Ketner was on the bench for nine points of an 11-0 run that put the Owls on top, 21-11. Mack drained a 3-pointer with 6:40 left in the half to finally put a stop to Temple's surge. It was the Minutemen's first field goal in nearly 8/4 minutes.
Clarke's short jumper in the lane with eight seconds left capped an 8-1 rally that pulled UMass to within a bucket at the half.
Clarke's foul shot with 12:10 left in the half gave UMass its final lead, 11-10.
The Minutemen's starting frontcourt of Ketner, Tyrone Weeks and Mike Babul were a combined 2 of 9 in the first half.
The game didn't begin until 9:30 p.m. to accommodate ESPN2. The Minutemen used to love playing on ESPN2, though. They entered the game with a 12-2 record on the network.
MHERST - In a 27-second stretch early in the second half,
Temple's Rasheed Brokenborough buried two NBA length three pointers to
turn a four-point lead into a 10-point advantage for the Owls at 36-26. The
University of Massachusetts never recovered as the No. 23 Minutemen fell,
61-47, Tuesday night at the Mullins Center.
The win was Temple's first ever in the six-year-old building and their first in Amherst since 1991. The loss snaps UMass' 10-game winning streak, as the Minutemen fall to 16-6, 1-0 A-10. Temple improves to 13-6 and 6-3 in the A-10. The two teams will meet again on March 1 in the regular season finale.
The game was UMass' third sellout of the season and by far and away its most boisterous crowd in the early going. But as Temple was able to put the game out of reach early, the arena was less than half full at the final buzzer.
Brokenborough's two threes were part of a 13-2 run to start the second half for Temple. Umass never cut the lead to less than 10 points the rest of the way. Lamont Barnes led Temple with 18, while Rasheed Brokenborough added 16. Charlton Clarke led the Minutemen with 14, while Monty Mack added 11.
Temple's vaunted matchup zone did what it was designed to do. The frontcourt threesome of Lari Ketner, Tyrone Weeks and Ajmal Basit were never able to get on track offensively with the amount of traffic inside. Basit finished with six, while Ketner had four and Weeks had just two.
 |
 |
| Ketner & Basit got looks, but couldn't get their scoring on track. | |
The frontcourt's lack of production put extra pressure on the UMass perimeter players. Mack and Jonathan DePina had obviously never seen that defensive formation before and Mike Babul and Chris Kirkland only saw one minute each last year against Temple.
"I told these guys," said UMass coach Bruiser Flint. "This zone is different than other zones. You're going to think you're open but you're not. The guys that we have, have never seen the Temple zone. This is a tough team to play without much time to prepare."
 Kirkland, Weeks & Ketner get in position for the rebound with Temple's Rasheed Brokenborough. |
With point guard Pepe Sanchez sidelined due to a sprained ankle, it was expected that freshman Lynn Greer would replace him in the starting lineup as he had in Temple's last game. Chaney surprised UMass however, by starting Quincy Wadley at point guard and had Keaton Sanders start instead of Julian Dunkley. The move worked as Wadley provided an early spark and finished with seven points, while Greer was solid off the bench with 11.
"It helped because they were able to take a look at the game and get a feel for the tempo and the frenzied crowd," Chaney said.
Both teams struggled offensively early playing as UMass led 11-10 eight minutes into the game. The Owls shook off the cobwebs first making a 10-0 run to open a 21-11 lead with 8:49 remaining in the half. A three by Mack cut the Minuteman deficit to 21-14 as UMass started to climb back in it. Lynn Greer hit a pull-up jumper to make it 23-14, but UMass responded with a 10-3 run led by Basit and Kirkland to close the half at 26-24.
 Ketner, Ross Burns, Weeks, DePina & Basit could only look on as Temple dominated. |
"I thought we learned a good lesson tonight," Flint said. "We need to keep this one in our memory banks and remember what we did."
"We just have to go out and start a new streak," Clarke said.
UMass returns to action at 3:30 p.m. Sunday against No. 21 Xavier in Cincinnati.
NOTES: The Minutemen are now 1-4 in their last four games when they've been ranked, dating back to the loss against Kentucky in the 1996 Final Four.
UMass opened last season in the poll, but after beating Chaminade the Minutemen then lost two straight to Virginia and California and dropped out of the Top 25.
MHERST - John Chaney's entrance was not well received by
the Mullins Center crowd Tuesday night, as the University of Massachusetts'
fans rained boos and jeers on him.
Almost four seasons have passed since he angrily threatened to inflict bodily harm on then-University of Massachusetts coach John Calipari in a post-game press conference, and the UMass home crowd still hasn't forgiven him. But one man in the building has long been a big fan of the Temple coach and still is, now that he coaches against him.
Bruiser Flint's first encounter with the head Owl came when he was still in grade school.
"I've known him since I was nine years old. I used to go to his basketball camp," Flint said.
In the 21 years since, Flint felt a great admiration for the role that Chaney has played in the lives of his former players.
"I know a lot of guys who have played for him, and they all love him," Flint said. "They say he's been like a father-figure for him. I know guys that played for him at Cheyney State, and they still live by the things he taught them. He's been a great model for me as a coach."
For Flint, that level of admiration is something to strive for.
"I hope guys that I have look at me in that regard someday," Flint said. "I know guys that are 30 and 40 years old that played for Chaney, and they still call him coach. And they talk like he was a father to him.
"I would say that he's an idol of sorts," Flint continued. "I know him away from the court. I know the type of discipline he has and the things that he tries to instill in his young guys. I hope to be that type of coach. I hope that someday people look at me the way they look at John Chaney."
"I can remember him playing," Chaney said. "He was always a jovial kid. He was always someone who had a great deal of fight in the way in which he played the game when he was playing at St. Joe's."
Chaney is impressed with the what the adult Flint has become.
"He was always someone who I knew was going to grow up to be a molder of men," Chaney said. "In watching the kids and how they listen to him when he's talking to them.
"That's something I really feel good about in watching him with his kids," Chaney continued. "I think he's done a great job here and will continue to do a great job."
Flint believes that Chaney is needed Wednesday more than ever.
"I think people like him are more important because you're taking even more of a fatherly role in the position as a coach because of family structure," Flint said.
"Kids need someone for the discipline. A lot of the guys that I know had mothers and fathers and family backgrounds. You don't have that as much any more, so you need people like John Chaney who are going to instill good qualities in the kids because they're not always getting it in the home."
| Clip | Approx. size |
|---|---|
 Ajmal Basit blocks and strips the ball. | 39k |
| Lari Ketner puts back a Monty Mack miss. | 42k |
| Basit collects his 3rd block on the night. | 18k |
 Chris Kirkland cleans up the garbage on the rim. | 558k |
| All sounds in .WAV format, video in .AVI format. Courtesey of ESPN2. | |
| Temple Owls | 61 |
| Massachusetts Minutemen (#23) | 47 |
| at the Mullins Center | |
TEMPLE (61)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Sanders 30 1-2 2-5 1-3 0 5 4
Stewart 37 1-2 3-4 1-7 0 0 5
Barnes 39 6-11 6-9 4-9 1 3 18
Brokenborough 40 6-14 2-4 0-6 4 1 16
Wadley 23 3-6 0-0 0-3 0 3 7
Moore 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Dunkley 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Greer 29 4-8 2-5 1-5 1 3 11
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 21-44 15-27 7-33 6 16 61
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.477, FT-.556. 3-Point Goals:
4-7, .571 (Brokenborough 2-4, Wadley 1-2, Greer
1-1). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 3 (Barnes
2, Stewart). Turnovers: 8 (Greer 3, Barnes 2,
Moore, Stewart, Wadley). Steals: 3 (Barnes 2,
Stewart).
MASSACHUSETTS (47)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Babul 16 1-3 0-0 1-1 2 2 2
Weeks 24 1-6 0-0 1-5 1 1 2
Ketner 28 2-7 0-0 3-6 0 4 4
Clarke 40 5-14 2-4 1-2 2 1 14
Mack 33 4-13 0-0 2-5 2 4 11
Depina 11 0-1 0-0 0-1 1 3 0
Cruz 1 0-1 0-0 1-1 0 0 0
Kirkland 24 2-6 4-4 2-5 1 2 8
Basit 23 2-5 2-6 3-8 1 4 6
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 17-56 8-14 14-34 10 21 47
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.304, FT-.571. 3-Point Goals:
5-16, .313 (Clarke 2-7, Mack 3-9). Team rebounds:
2. Blocked shots: 8 (Basit 5, Weeks 2, Ketner).
Turnovers: 9 (Mack 3, Basit 2, Clarke 2, Babul,
Ketner). Steals: 4 (Mack 2, Ketner, Kirkland).
__________________________________
Temple 26 35 - 61
Massachusetts 24 23 - 47
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Massachusetts 1 (Head Coach
Flint). A: 9,493. Officials: Jim Burr, Tim
Higgins, Robert Donato.
