PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team got a badly needed Big 5 win on Saturday, using a late push to surge past a Temple team that was looking to cap an outright city series championship at The Palestra.
 
The game was tied, 53-53, after Temple's Khalif Battle converted an and-1 three-point play with 8:49 left. However, Penn held the Owls without a field goal the rest of the way, outscoring them 24-4 to win going away, 77-57.
 
Penn snapped a modest three-game losing skid, all of them in Big 5 play, and improved to 6-7 overall. Temple is now 6-5 overall and finished the Big 5 season 3-1. The Owls can still win the city series outright if Saint Joseph's beats Villanova next Saturday at Hagan Arena. However, Temple lost its chance to finish 4-0 in Big 5 play for the first time since 2009-10 and just the fifth time in the rivalry's history (dating back to 1955-56).
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Saturday's 20-point win was Penn's fourth-largest in a Big 5 game and its second-largest over Temple in the Big 5 era. The largest was a 25-point margin (71-46) on December 7, 2002.

*Penn committed just seven turnovers on Saturday, a season low and one shy of the program's low in the Donahue era; the Quakers won the battle for points off turnovers, 13-2.
 
*Penn also led Temple in points in the paint (42-28) and second-chance points (18-14).
 
*Penn's assist/turnover ratio (17/7, 2.43) was its best this season.
 
*Penn won for the second time this season when trailing at the half (now 2-3 in such games).
 
*Penn improved to 4-0 when hitting more three-pointers than its opponent (Penn 8, Temple 7).
 
*Junior Jordan Dingle scored 30 points to lead all scorers; 21 of those points came in the second half. (To be more precise, over a span of 16:03 in the second half.)
 
*Dingle scored 120 points across Penn's four Big 5 games (28 vs. SJU, 37 vs. La Salle, 25 at Villanova, 30 vs. Temple). That is a Big 5 record for a single season; the previous mark of 116 was held by Cliff Anderson (Saint Joseph's), who set it during the 1966-67 season.
 
*Dingle now has eight career 30-point games, tied with Keven McDonald for second-most in program history. (Ernie Beck is first, with 13.)
 
*Dingle has reached at least 20 points in ten straight games, the longest streak since Beck started the 1952-53 season with 16 such games.
 
*Dingle's double-figure scoring streak is at 21 games, putting him alone in eighth place in program history.
 
*Dingle also set a career high with six assists and matched his season/career best with three steals.
 
*Junior Max Martz scored 14 points, his second straight game in double figures and sixth in the last eight (with the other two being nine-point games).
 
*Senior Lucas Monroe had his first double-figure scoring game since January 7 (Cornell) with 10 points, adding three rebounds and three assists.
 
*Monroe hit a pair of three-pointers in the game. He entered the contest with seven in his career—six of them as a freshman—and had hit more than one in a game just one other time, against Widener on December 21, 2019.
 
*Junior Andrew Laczkowski entered Saturday's game with three points this season (the final three at Villanova on Wednesday); he had seven on Saturday, all of them in the final six minutes as part of Penn's final 24-4 run.
 
*Laczkowski also tied for game-high honors with nine rebounds, five of them coming on the offensive glass.
 
*Temple was led by Battle (14 points). Jamille Reynolds had 13 points and nine rebounds, while Hysier Miller scored 10.
 
How It Happened
The first half was everything you could ask for in a Big 5 game. Both teams were lively offensively, in your face defensively, and seemed to be spurred on by a crowd that brought The Palestra to life on a Saturday afternoon.
 
Penn took a five-point lead when a Jonah Charles bucket and a Dingle trey broke an 11-11 tie. The lead was still five, at 21-16, when Temple's Hysier Miller sandwiched a bucket in the lane and a three-pointer around a Reynolds layup. Penn's only response was a pair of Dingle free throws, and the score was tied, 23-23, with six minutes left. Damian Dunn then scored to give the Owls a 25-23 lead—extending their run to 9-2—before Monroe stunned everyone with a three-pointer that pushed Penn back in front, 26-25. Temple responded with a basket by Jahlil White with 3:33 left; amazingly, that would be the last basket of the half, the only point the rest of the way a Dunn free throw. Temple's lead was 28-26 at the break.
 
The score was tied early in the second half, 35-35, when Penn jumped in front with a 7-0 run. Dingle started it with a runner, and then off a steal Charles dribbled himself into a fast-break three-pointer. Another steal led to a Martz backdoor bucket from a Dingle feed. Temple needed a timeout.
 
Nick Jourdain scored out of the stoppage, getting Temple back on its feet, and the teams traded points for several minutes until a Dingle pullup in the lane gave the Quakers a 53-48 lead as the second half passed its midpoint.
 
Temple scored the next five points to draw back level, Reynolds scoring inside off a Battle assist and then Battle driving for a layup and getting fouled. When his and-1 free throw went through the net, things were tied at 53-53 with 8:49 to play.
 
Both teams missed on their next possessions before Dingle took a pass from Nick Spinoso, converted the layup and was fouled with 7:57 left. He hit the free throw. Two possessions later, Dingle again scored in the lane, then after another empty Temple possession Laczkowski had a putback layup when Dingle's trey attempt was off the mark. The run was 7-0, the score was 60-53, and Temple coach Aaron McKie was taking another timeout.
 
A Reynolds free throw after the stoppage briefly slowed things, but only briefly as Dingle again got in the lane for a bucket. On its next possession, Spinoso missed a baby hook but this time Martz cleaned up the mess for a putback, giving the Quakers their first double-digit lead of the day at 64-54 with 4:24 left.
 
Nearly a minute went by before another point was scored; no surprise, it was Dingle on a driving layup. Laczkowski then brought the house down when he stole the ball on defense, then took a feed from Charles and threw down a dunk in transition at the other end.
 
Temple actually scored the next three points after that, all on Battle free throws, to make the score 68-57 with 2:24 still to play. The Owls fouled Spinoso shortly after that and the sophomore missed his 1-and-1 shot, but in a critical sequence Laczkowski got the board. Then, when Spinoso missed another shot Laczkowski got another offensive rebound. Finally, Dingle was fouled and he hit both of his 1-and-1 shots with the clock inside two minutes.
 
That seemed to be the final dagger. Temple wouldn't score again as Penn ended the contest on a 9-0 run.
 
Up Next
Penn is off until Wednesday, Dec. 28 when the Quakers host Wilkes University at The Palestra. Tip time for that game is scheduled for 2 p.m.