Temple’s Zone Traps Florida

Temple players freely admit it takes them years to figure out Coach John Chaney’s favorite defense.

With only one day to prepare for something it had never seen, Florida stood no chance.

Temple frustrated the Gators with its renowned matchup zone and, behind the shooting of Quincy Wadley and Lynn Greer, won 75-54 in the second round of the NCAA South Regional Sunday at the Superdome.

It was a familiar Philadelphia story for the 11th-seeded Owls as their defense added yet another top opponent to their list of tournament victims.

“It pretty much demoralized them,” Wadley said.

The Owls (23-12) will play seventh-seeded Penn State on Friday in Atlanta. The Nittany Lions upset second-seeded North Carolina.

Temple shut down Florida’s up-tempo shooters and shut off its passing lanes. With six minutes left, the third-seeded Gators had only 13 baskets and 11 turnovers.

The 54 points matched the fewest in Coach Billy Donovan’s five seasons at the school.

“Coach Chaney says a lot of things, and some of them I may not remember. The main thing was that we had to play good defense,” Greer said.

Coming off Friday’s 79-65 win over Texas, the Owls advanced to the round of 16 for the second time in three years.

“We’ve been walking a tight wire for the last four to five weeks,” Chaney said. “With what they’ve accomplished, I’ve got to applaud them.”

The Gators (24-7) fell behind by 20 at halftime and never had a chance to make a return trip to the NCAA title game, where they lost 89-76 to Michigan State last season.

Wadley had 24 points and 10 rebounds. Scoreless for the opening 11 minutes, he sparked a 14-0 run late in the first half that put Temple ahead for good.

Greer had 20 points and nine assists. Alex Wesby added 13 points and Kevin Lyde had 11 for Temple.

Udonis Haslem had 16 points for Florida.