No. 17 Owls Soar Over Vikings

John Chaney couldn't stay around to swap stories about his days in Philadelphia battling Rollie Massimino. Not when Mark Karcher needed him more.

Karcher made five 3-pointers and scored 24 points Monday night before leaving with a shoulder injury to lead No. 17 Temple to a 79-66 win over Cleveland State in a reunion of old coaching adversaries.

After the game, Karcher, accompanied by Chaney, was taken out of the Convocation Centre on a stretcher to get X-rays at the Cleveland Clinic on the left shoulder he hurt in a collision late in the game.

"He looked pretty bad getting on the stretcher, like he was in a lot of pain," Owls guard Lynn Greer said. "It affected all of us."

"He fell read hard," he said. "I'm no doctor, but it doesn't look good."

Karcher, a junior averaging 15.1 points, made two 3s in a 15-0 run in the second half for the Owls (6-2), who won their fourth straight despite forcing jumpers and making just 44 percent of their field-goal attempts.

The victory gave Chaney a 7-5 lead in head-to-head matchups against Massimino, whom he hadn't faced since Feb. 1, 1992, when Cleveland State's coach was at Villanova.

Late in the game, Chaney had words with a fan sitting behind the Temple bench and had to be calmed by Demopolous. But as the final seconds ticked down, Chaney walked to halfcourt to share a hug and laugh with Massimino, whom he sometimes butted heads with when the two fought for Philadelphia's college basketball bragging rights.

"Temple played their usual system" Massimino said. "I thought we were ready."

Massimino, who coached at 'Nova from 1973-92, had nothing but praise for Chaney, who accepted his invitation to include Cleveland State on the nation's toughest schedule.

"John Chaney is a great coach and a great man," he said. "I'm honored he came out here to play us. That's a very good team. They've got two or three pros and they play the No. 1 strength of schedule in the country."

James Madison had 16 points and Damon Stringer 14 to lead Cleveland State (5-6), which led 48-47 with 11:36 left before going cold from the field.

The Vikings, whose 2-3 zone defense gave Temple problems, fell apart when the Owls' upped their defensive pressure. Cleveland State missed five straight shots and nine of 11 during Temple's decisive 15-0 burst.

"Temple trapped us a bit and we got antsy, discombobulate and out of sync," Massimino said. "We turned the ball over and they made shots."

Greer added 19 points for Temple, which unable to get the ball down low turned to its outside game and made 11 of 31 3-point attempts.

The Owls didn't attempt a free throw in the first half, but finished 20 of 26 from the line as the Vikings were forced to foul late.

Chaney thought his players were standing around on offense in the first half and blasted them in the locker room at halftime.

"Coach got on us," Greer said. "We got too comfortable with our lead early and and he let us know it. we had no foul shot in the first half. That meant we were not taking it to the hole, not moving. We stepped up the defense in the second half."

Temple played its seventh game without senior point guard Pepe Sanchez, who is still sidelined by an ankle sprain suffered in the season opener against Miami, Ohio.

Now the Owls could be without Karcher, who was injured late in the game after a collision at midcourt with Vikings guard Doc Taylor.

"I hope it's not as serious as it looked," Owls guard Quincy Wadley said.

Karcher, though, had already done his damage by the time he was helped to the locker room with 1:38 left.

Greer's third 3-pointer with 10:10 remaining gave the Owls a 50-48 lead, and following Cleveland State's miss, Karcher hit his fourth trey to give Temple its biggest lead since the first half.

Stringer misfired on the Vikings' next trip, and Karcher came up with a loose ball rebound before Lyde banked in a jumper from the foul line to put Temple up 55-48.

Karcher drilled another 3 and Lyde closed the 15-0 spurt with a strong two-handed dunk with 6:03 left.

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