Greer Rallies Temple Into Quarterfinals

Neither Louisville nor an ankle injury could stop Lynn Greer.

Greer scored 20 of his 27 points in the second half Tuesday night and Temple rallied from a 16-point halftime deficit to beat the Cardinals, 65-62, at Louisville, Ky., in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament.

“We got beat by a great basketball player,” Louisville Coach Rick Pitino said. “It was a fabulous performance by a gutty player. He made some great shots.”

The Owls (17-14) trailed, 38-22, at halftime, making only 10 of 31 shots from the field.

“In the first half, we did a pretty good job of getting shots--we just weren’t knocking them down,” Greer said.

Temple Coach John Chaney was predictably angry at halftime.

“Coach said, ‘If you’re not going to play in the second half, stay in the locker room,’” said Kevin Lyde, who finished with 12 points.

Temple started the second half with a 17-6 run by making six of eight shots.

Reece Gaines scored 16 points for Louisville (19-13).

Villanova 67, Louisiana Tech 64--Gary Buchanan made two free throws with 12.5 seconds remaining and finished with 21 points to lift the Wildcats (22-10) at Villanova, Pa.

Tennessee Tech 80, Yale 61--Sophomore guard Cameron Crisp scored a career-high 24 points for Tennessee Tech (27-6) at New Haven, Conn.

Ball State 75, Louisiana State 65--Chris Williams scored 25 points to lead Ball State (23-11) at Baton Rouge, La.

South Carolina 75, Nevada Las Vegas 65--Jamel Bradley scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half at Columbia, S.C., and the Gamecocks (20-14) advanced to the quarterfinal round of the NIT for the first time since 1996.

Lou Kelly had 28 points for Las Vegas (22-11).

WOMEN

Michigan State 79, Alabama 61--The Spartans (19-12) advanced to the quarterfinals behind Syreeta Bromfield’s 17 points at East Lansing, Mich.