Temple topples No. 3 Syracuse

NEW YORK - Khalif Wyatt had never been in Madison Square Garden, let alone played there.

The Philadelphia native left the building Saturday after scoring a career-high 33 points and being the key to Temple beating No. 3 Syracuse 83-79 in the first Gotham Classic.

"I always wanted to play here, because all the great players had a chance to play here," said Wyatt, a 6-foot-4-inch senior guard. "This was a chance for us to show everyone that Temple is a real program."

Anthony Lee scored a career-high 21 points for the Owls (9-2), who were coming off a 10-point home loss to Canisius.

"I don't think we would have won today without the loss in the last game," coach Fran Dunphy said. "Our guys did a great job. I wish it was worth more than one victory."

Temple didn't make a field goal for the final 5:41, but held on by making 11 of 15 free throws in the final 2:30.

This is the fifth straight season Temple has beaten a top-10 team while being unranked. Saturday's win was led by the combination of Wyatt from the outside and Lee inside.

"We wanted to go inside and out, and that meant me going up strong and fighting for rebounds," said Lee, who had nine rebounds, five offensive, and repeatedly worked the baseline against Syracuse's vaunted zone. "That's playing the Temple game."

Dunphy said Wyatt challenged himself after a poor game against Canisius.

"He made some really good plays when we were struggling to score and had to stay in the game," Dunphy said.

The Orange led by two at halftime but never took a lead in the second half, even though there were four ties, the last at 59-59 with 10:23 remaining.

C.J. Fair scored a career-high 25 points for Syracuse (10-1), which had its 52-game regular-season nonconference winning streak snapped. Jim Boeheim remained at 900 wins, two behind Bob Knight for second place all time among Division I men's coaches. Duke's Mike Krzyzewski has 938.

Wyatt made all 15 of his free-throw attempts, and Lee was 11 of 14 as the Owls hit 29 of 36.

Syracuse was 19 of 34 from the line, missing four in the final six minutes, when it was mostly a one-possession game. Point guard Michael Carter-Williams was 7 of 15 at the line.

"They made free throws, we didn't," Boeheim said. "You don't like to say it comes down to that, but when you miss 15 free throws, it's tough to win any game."

Carter-Williams took the heat, saying, "If I make free throws, we win the game."

Temple made three 3-pointers during an 11-3 run that gave it the lead for good. Scootie Randall started the run with a 3 that broke the 59-all tie and closed it with another 3, his only points of the game.