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Miami (Ohio) Upsets No. 17 Owls

November 30, 2000 / 9:28 PM EST / CBS/AP

Jason Grunkemeyer's shot finally fell, and so did No. 17 Temple.

Grunkemeyer emerged from his shooting slump by scoring 20 points as Miami University solved Temple's struggling matchup zone and beat the Owls 66-58 Thursday night.

Miami (2-3) opened its home season by upsetting a Top 25 team for the second time in three years, setting off a frantic rush to the court by thousands of fans.

The RedHawks beat No. 18 Tennessee 68-62 in 1998, bringing another court swarming. Coach Charlie Coles showed his team tape of that moment and, just before tipoff, clips of another frantic home-court upset of Xavier a few years ago to give his team an edge.

It worked. Miami patiently exploited the holes in Temple's vaunted defense, passing the ball inside-out for wide-open shots. Grunkemeyer hit the biggest ones, going 5-for-7 from behind the arc.

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"I've been off the last couple of games," said Grunkemeyer, who had missed his last eight 3-point attempts. "I knew eventually it would go down. It helped when I hit a couple of shots early. I got my confidence."

Temple (4-2) was playing the middle game between two matchups with No. 1 Duke. The Owls lost to the Blue Devils 63-61 in the final of the Preseason NIT on Friday and have a rematch in Philadelphia on Saturday.

That might have been on their minds Thursday, until Miami got their attention too late.

"They just wanted it more than we did," said Quincy adley, who scored 16 points. "That shook me hard. They outwilled us. They outhustled us to every loose ball."

A Miami team that hadn't hit its outside shots all season worked for them and made them, going 11-of-22 on 3-point attempts. Center Mike Ensminger led with seven assists on inside-out passing for uncontested perimeter shots.

"We're going back to work tomorrow and work on our defense," coach John Chaney said. "They executed as well as any team I've ever played against. They only had two turnovers in the first half. They played Houdini with a lot of passes, but they only ended up with two turnovers."

The RedHawks also turned brawnier Temple into a perimeter team with a tight man-to-man defense that double-teamed the Owls whenever they passed inside.

That left open shots that Temple hit initially. The Owls made seven of their first eight, including 5-of-6 on 3-point attempts, while pulling ahead 19-10. They went cold in the second half, missing their first eight as Miami gained control.

Lynn Greer had 17 points for Temple, which went only 4-of-18 on 3-point attempts in the second half.

"Our young guys are good shooters," Wadley said. "When shooters are shooting well, they have a tendency to get away from defense. That's been our problem so far."

Grunkemeyer, who was only 5-of-17 on 3-point attempts heading in, made two of them early to set the tone. Miami tied it at 31 on Larry Drake's consecutive 3-pointers, but Greer's driving layup put Temple up 33-31 at halftime.

There were only five fouls called in the first half, when neither team went to the line.

Grunkemeyer opened the second half with a 3-pointer that gave Miami its first lead since the opening minutes. Another 3 by Drake pushed the lead to 41-37.

After Temple caught up, Grunkemeyer hit a 3-pointer that started a seven-point spurt and gave Miami its biggest lead, 48-41, with 6:34 left.

When Temple cut the lead to 50-47, Grunkemeyer hit an uncontested 3-pointer and Miami was never seriously challenged again. Four free throws by Doug Davis padded the lead to 59-48 with 1:19 to play.