WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) -- Wake Forest coach Dave Odom got a perfect early season game for his young team -- a near-perfect first half followed by a teaching tool in the second 20 minutes.

Robert O'Kelley scored 19 of his 22 points in the first half and sixth man Craig Dawson added 16 as unbeaten Wake Forest hung on to beat Temple (No. 9 ESPN/USA Today, No. 10 AP) 77-72 Saturday.

	Robert O'Kelley sparked Wake with 19 first-half points.

"I think we can handle it, but if the halftime lead had held up I would have had to crack them pretty hard the next few days to get their attention," Odom said. "I'm pretty good at that, I don't mind doing that, but I prefer doing it from a teaching standpoint rather than cracking them over the head."

Temple coach John Chaney just sat on the bench most of the opening 20 minutes with head in hand as O'Kelley and the Demon Deacons (5-0) put on a basketball clinic against his team, building a 26-point lead.

"We couldn't put the ball in the ocean," Chaney said of his club's 16 percent shooting in the first half. "That's something we've never been able to do too well."

Chaney said his team wasn't tough enough when he claimed Wake Forest's big men were setting illegal screens.

"We let them get away with screening off of our patterns and that was my anger, that was frustration," Chaney said. "I wanted us to perhaps run through with a couple of elbows right in a guy's neck because they were bad and illegal screens. When that happens you've got to go illegal like everybody else. We just couldn't get that done. We should have done it earlier."

Despite the huge early deficit, the Owls (2-2), behind a career-high 33 points from Mark Karcher, threw a late score into Wake Forest, which opened 5-0 for the third time in the last four seasons.

The Owls, playing their third straight game without point guard Pepe Sanchez (who has a bad ankle), were an offensive nightmare, starting the game 1-for-18 from the field to fall behind big early. At one point, Temple missed 15 straight shots.

"We're headless horsemen (without Sanchez) and you can't get it done in this business," Chaney said.

Chaney said Sanchez wanted to play, but there was still swelling in his ankle.

"That's not going to be his decision it's going to be mine," Chaney said. " I value that kid and he's pretty special to me. He can be his worst enemy because he is a macho person."

Odom said he wished Sanchez would have played.

"Great players deserve to be on the court. I don't like to see people hurt," Odom said. "Did it affect the game? Absolutely it affected the game. Does that mean we wouldn't have won the game if he had played? No, it doesn't mean that. We know this, they would have been a much better team with him on the court."

Wake Forest shot 53 percent, made all 10 of its foul shots and committed only one turnover in a near perfect opening half.

O'Kelley, a 6-foot-1 junior guard, scored eight of Wake Forest's first 10 points to shred Temple's zone. That was before the Demon Deacons went on a 23-4 run, scoring 15 points in a span of 2:53 for a 33-9 lead eight minutes before the half.

Temple came into the game last in the Atlantic 10 in shooting at 37 percent, and a 5-for-31 opening 20 minutes didn't help.

The Owls, with just 21 turnovers in their first three games, wilted under Wake Forest's pressure defense and gave the ball away seven times in the disastrous first half.

Wake Forest started the second half 1-for-10 as Temple got within 15, but the 48-22 halftime score was too much for the Owls to overcome.

"We had enough composure, enough poise to hold them off, but we didn't look good doing it. I would be the first to admit that," said Odom.

O'Kelley was 7-for-10 from the field in the first half with four 3-pointers, but shot just four times in the second half -- missing all four.

Karcher's previous best point total was 25 against Florida State in 1998.