TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Temple and Penn State are separated by 200 miles of Pennsylvania countryside, close enough that that they have met in basketball 91 times, not counting a scrimmage last October.
Yet they had to travel across the continent to the far southwest corner of the country for Thursday’s encounter in the West Region, a game that features in-your-face defense from both teams as the seventh-seeded Owls (25-7) seek to end coach Fran Dunphy’s NCAA record 11-game losing streak.
Penn State (19-14), led by the school’s career scoring leader, Talor Battle, won seven of its last 10 games, including a victory over Wisconsin in the Big Ten tournament, to earn a No. 10 seed in its first NCAA tournament appearance in a decade.
