Story by: Josh Abrams (Twitter: @jabrams1998)
PHILADELPHIA – Temple traveled down Broad Street to the Palestra to take on Penn this past Saturday in a Big-5 showdown, which resulted in a 77-57 victory for the Quakers.
Anybody who had eyes on the game could not have possibly predicted a 20-point outcome for either side, especially given the way the first 32 minutes went.
A classic and typical Big-5 battle for most of the contest, both teams wasted no time coming alive offensively, and simultaneously the defensive intensity was through the roof. Though not sold out, fans for both teams filled the Cathedral of College Basketball and made their presence felt, whether it was cheering on their respective squads or letting the officials know what they thought about a call.
Temple led 28-26 at halftime and withstood a 7-0 run early in the second half from Penn, whose lead got up to as much as seven. Capping a 5-0 run for the Owls, Khalif Battle converted an and-one layup and completed the three-point play, knotting things up at 53 apiece with just under nine minutes remaining in regulation.
From there, the Owls failed to convert any of their nine field goal attempts and were outscored 24-4 the rest of the way.
Penn vs. Temple - PSD Highlights by JOsh Abrams:
The game had major implications for both teams, as red-hot Temple was looking to win their fifth game in a row and, more importantly, the outright Big-5 title. A loss for Penn would have given them an especially dreadful 0-4 record in Big-5 play, particularly since their last three games were losses to St. Joe’s, La Salle and Villanova.
Junior guard Jordan Dingle made sure the Quakers would not go winless against Big-5 competition, as he led all scorers with 30 points, set a new career high with six assists and added three steals. Max Martz chipped in 14 points on 6-8 shooting while Abington native Lucas Monroe scored 10 and had three first half assists.
The current tear Dingle is on is something we may not again see from a Big-5 player for a very, very long time. Saturday was his eighth career 30-point game as a Quaker (tied for second most in program history) and 10th consecutive game this season with 20+ points. Furthermore, he scored 120 points across Penn’s four Big-5 games (28 vs SJU, 37 vs La Salle, 25 vs Villanova and 30 vs Temple), which breaks the single-season record of 116 previously held by Cliff Anderson (St. Joe’s) who set it during the 1966-67 season.
Post game press conference with Penn head coach Steve Donahue - PSD Video by Josh Abrams
Additional comments from Penn's Andrew Laczkowski & Jordan Dingle - PSD Video by Josh Abrams
Post Game Press conference with Temple guard Khalif Battle & Aaron McKie - PSD Video by Josh Abrams
And even with the opportunity to play all of the city rivals every season, it’s this matchup against Temple that means slightly more for the third leading scorer in the country.
“It’s incredible,” the Valley Stream, NY native expressed. “I take this game specifically very personally because my uncle (Daniel Dingle) played (at Temple) from 2012 to 2017, and I came to a lot of these games as a young kid. Especially when we played Penn; my family would always try to make it down to the game.”
He continued: “The environment is incredible. In the first half it seemed like we were playing an away game with how loud Temple’s fans were, and it shows how much this city cares about the Big-5 games; that extends to us as well.”
Anytime Penn started to pull away from Temple, Dingle seemed to play a key role in it, scoring easy layups or setting up such opportunities for his teammates. There is not much that he does wrong on the court, something that has to sit well for his head coach, Steve Donahue.
“The thing I like about today (is) I thought he controlled the game,” said the seventh-year Quaker leader. “He had six assists and was fouled eight times and went 9-10 (from the foul line)... I thought he was so good today in all aspects of the game.”
Perhaps the most appealing and genuine quality of Dingle is his unselfishness; he stops at nothing to credit his teammates more than himself.
“They did a really good job making shots and that just opened up the floor for me, and it gave me the gaps that I’m usually used to attacking. So them making shots and the right cuts and right plays all the time just made it that much easier for me.”
A teammate of his who stepped up in a big way was Andrew Laczkowski. A rather surprising name to show up in the box score, the 6-foot-6 wing from Dallas played just 14 minutes. But in those 14 minutes he scored seven points, grabbed nine rebounds (five of them offensive) and was a +16 for the game. His biggest two points came on an emphatic slam dunk off a feed from Jonah Charles to put Penn up 68-54, their largest lead at that point.
Penn junior guard, Jordan Dingle #3, scored 30 points against Temple and 28 points against St. Joe's - PSD Photo by Mike Nance
Said Laczkowski about the play of the game: “It was super exciting. Temple was clawing back into it because they’re a great team and have a lot of really good players over there.”
“For myself, personally, I was just thinking about ‘next play, next play’ because I don’t have a lot of key minutes played. We talked about ‘must trust’ all year and that’s kind of what we have to do; we have to rely on each other.”
Despite only 29 minutes played on the season for Laczkowski, Donahue’s praise for him did not go unnoticed.
“As Jordan’s talking about about Andrew, I’m thinking ‘Who the heck is the dumb coach that’s not playing him enough?’” jokingly asked Donahue. “Andrew has always played well when he was in there, even last year he was giving us small minutes. What he did tonight is kind of what we expect, but to see it against a Temple team… you feel like you have another player who can help us compete for an Ivy League title.”
While it isn’t necessarily the end of the world for Temple that they could not capitalize on a perfect 4-0 record against the Big-5, it is the nature of Saturday’s loss that makes Owls head coach Aaron McKie feel uneasy.
“My biggest concern is how we played,” McKie said after the loss. “Nothing worked… we weren’t able to get out of our own way. We still have a long way to go, a long season ahead of us, but we can’t dig holes for ourselves and try to come up with creative ways to get out.”
Penn improves their record to 6-7 (1-3 Big-5) and will next play host on Wednesday, Dec. 28 against Wilkes University, a Division III school out of Wilkes-Barre, PA.
Temple falls to 6-5 on the season (3-1 in Big-5 play) and will travel to Ole Miss for their next game on Saturday, December 17.