Temple Tops Florida State

Temple coach John Chaney was glad his defense forced Florida State outside Monday night, but he wasn't so happy about a school-record 13 blocked shots.

Lynn Greer scored 20 points and Temple's inside defense smothered Florida State as the 10th-ranked Owls defeated the cold-shooting Seminoles 69-58 Monday night.

Temple (2-1) led 28-26 at the half and used an 8-0 run to start the second half to take command of the game as Florida State was never able to get closer than eight points in the second half.

"It was done in a slow way and it was done basically with defense," Chaney said. "Most of their shots came from the outside. The defense helped us out until we got a little spurt."

But Chaney wasn't happy about so many blocked shots.

"It's not a stat I'm pretty proud of," he said. "When you block a shot it's like being in an emergency ward. That's the last stop."

The 6-foot-9 Lyde and 6-10 Lamont Barnes, who blocked four shots, kept Florida State shooting from the outside.

Ron Hale led Florida State (2-2) with 21 points and Damous Anderson added 13, but both suffered subpar shooting performances. Hale hit on 7-of-22 attempts while Anderson made 5-of-16 shots and starting point guard Delvon Arrington was just 2-for-10.

"You don't get too many breakaways on us," Chaney said.

Hale scored eight of his points in the first six minutes as Florida State took an early 14-6 lead and the Seminoles were still up 26-23 with two minutes left in the half.

Hale credited Temple' defense with slowing him down after the fast start.

"They were finding me quicker," he said.

Florida State coach Steve Robinson looked for a silver lining in his team's performance.

"I feel like we're on the right road, but we must keep traveling," he said. "I don't think we can be a great team right now, but we can be a good team."

Greer, a 6-1 junior handling the point guard duties for injured starter Pepe Sanchez, hit 8 of 12 shots, including four 3-pointers. Sanchez, who remained sidelined with a sprained ankle suffered in the season opener, Nov. 21.

Quincy Wadley and Barnes each added 13 points for Temple, which shot just 38.5 percent from the field. Mark Karcher, who averaged 15 points in Temple's first two games, was just 3-for-17 from the floor, but grabbed 11 rebounds and had 4 steals.

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