Penn State jumped out to a nine-point lead early in its NCAA Tournament second round game against Temple, but the Owls chipped away after the Nittany Lions' Jeff Brooks was forced to the bench with two fouls mid-way through the opening period and took a 35-33 lead into halftime in Tucson, Ariz.
Talor Battle led the scoring for Penn State in the first half with 13 points on 5-7 shooting including 3-5 from 3-point territory. His early contributions were important in allowing the Lions to take its early lead. Tim Frazier followed Battle in the scoring column with eight points and also grabbed three rebounds. The Lions' leading rebounder in the half was Andrew Jones, who grabbed five boards in the half and also had two points.
Juan Fernandez leads all scorers with 17 points for Temple. The guard was 6-7 shooting in the half including 2-3 from 3-point territory. Rahlir Jefferson had seven points in the half for the Owls, Ramon Moore had six and Khalif Wyatt had five off the bench to round out the scoring for Temple.
The game's pace has been a little quicker than expected so far. Many felt the two teams would slow the game down and lock up in a low scoring affair, but so far, the pace has been pretty loose and both teams have gone up and down so far. It'll be interesting to see if that keeps up after the half.