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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- Pepe Sanchez dominated a game without
scoring a point.
Temple's senior point guard had a career-high 15 assists Friday
as the second-seeded Owls beat 15th-seeded Lafayette 73-47 in the
opening round of the East Regional of the NCAA tournament.
|  | | Kevin Lyde scored 12 points in Temple's 23rd straight victory over Lafayette. |
"It's the way I like to see the game played," Temple coach
John Chaney said. "It's not easy playing point guard at Temple,
I'll tell you that."
Sanchez, who was 0-for-3 from the field Friday, was a third-team
AP All-America this season after averaging 6.0 points while
shooting 34 percent from the field.
"I don't have a philosophy of not shooting the ball," said
Sanchez, who scored in double figures just twice this season but
had more than 10 assists five times. "I take the game the way it
comes. If I have my shots I take them. If not, I make my team work.
That's the way I learned the game from Coach."
Temple (27-5) will play 10th-seeded Seton Hall, which beat
seventh-seeded Oregon 72-71 in overtime, in Sunday's second round
at the HSBC Arena.
Sanchez's previous best was 14 assists this season against
George Washington. He came within one assist of the East Regional
record set by Sam Crawford of New Mexico State in 1993 in the first
round against Nebraska. The NCAA tournament record is 18 by Mark
Wade of UNLV in the 1987 national semifinal against Indiana.
Sanchez came out of the game after getting his final assist with
4:09 to play and Temple leading 67-45.
Chaney recruited the native of Argentina after watching a
5-minute video of him.
"I never saw him score. He handled the ball and ran around like
a rabbit, stealing the ball from the older players," Chaney said,
admitting the early years between the two weren't smooth.
"The game is played in Argentina with a lot of fanfare, a lot
of fun and entertainment. They don't care about turnovers. The
first time he was fancy with me I was right on top of him. I
learned some words in Spanish to yell at him. Then a light came on
in his head that he was playing with the first team."
Sanchez knows he's a different player than when he made the trip
from South America to Philadelphia.
"When I got to Temple I was a lot more wild and it was the same
to me to do something spectacular whether it as shooting or passing
the ball," he said. "At Temple I learned to play the game in an
effective way. If I'm open I'll shoot but my first thinking is to
pass to the shooter because that's what they do. I'm the playmaker.
Four years of this has made me an effective player."
Quincy Wadley led Temple with 17 points, Mark Karcher had 15,
Lynn Greer 13 and Kevin Lyde 12.
"I think Pepe's the key to our team," Greer said. "He gets
the whole offense moving. He finds guys when they're open and we
just knock down the shots. He gets us the ball where we need it."
While Temple and Lafayette (24-7) both play matchup zone _ a 2-3
zone that involves a lot of man-to-man principles such as switching
and helping _ the Owls played it a lot tougher with their superior
size and quickness. They took a 38-20 halftime lead and pulled away
throughout the second half.
It was the eighth time this season Temple held an opponent to 20
or fewer points in the first half. The Owls are second in the
nation in scoring defense at 55.4 points per game and third in
field-goal percentage defense at 36.3.
They improved both numbers Friday as Lafayette shot 36 percent
(18-for-50).
"Obviously we knew we had a bad draw," Lafayette coach Fran
O'Hanlon said. "We played against a zone we play and we felt
confident in how we would attack it."
The victory was the 18th in the last 19 games for Temple, the
Atlantic 10 regular-season and tournament champion.
This is Temple's 11th straight NCAA appearance and the 16th time
it has made it in Chaney's 18 seasons.
It was Temple's 23rd straight victory over Lafayette, with the
Leopards' last victory coming on Feb. 28, 1959.
Tyson Whitfield had 15 points and Brian Ehlers, the two-time
conference player of the year, added 13 for Lafayette.
"I felt it was real tough to get open against the zone in the
first half when they had the adrenaline pumping and they were
looking to extend the zone and pressure us," Whitfield said.
The Leopards, who won the Patriot League tournament and shared
the regular-season title with Navy, had won nine straight games and
16 of 17. It was the second straight NCAA appearance for the
Leopards, who ended a 42-year drought last season with a 75-54
first-round loss to Miami.
"Temple plays a unique offense so this wasn't like last year,
playing Miami who was trying to push the ball," Ehlers said.
Temple is the last of the three Atlantic 10 teams remaining in
the NCAA tournament. Dayton and St. Bonaventure lost Thursday.
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ALSO SEE
Mens College Basketball Scoreboard
Lafayette NCAA Team Report
Temple NCAA Team Report
Chat: NCAA Tourney
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