Nov. 14, 2008

Box Score |  Photo Gallery 

CHARLESTON, SC - Christmas Season officially opened for Temple basketball and, like the holiday, the Owls’ All-America candidate did not disappoint.  Senior guard Dionte Christmas led all scorers with 26 points, tied a career-high with 11 rebounds and dished a team-high six assists to lead the Cherry and White to a convincing 79-65 win over East Tennessee State in the first round of the Charleston Classic.  The Owls (1-0) will meet either the College of Charleston or Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.  The game will be shown live on Comcast SportsNet and can be heard on  The BigTalker, 1210 AM WPHT. 

It was not just a Christmas celebration at the Carolina First Center, the College of Charleston’s brand new arena.  Sophomore Lavoy Allen posted his second double-double of his career, scoring 14 points will pulling down a career-high 15 rebounds.  Junior Ryan Brooks made the best of his first collegiate start, scoring 15 points.  Red-shirt freshman Ramone Moore had an impressive debut off the bench, tallying 11 points and grabbing four rebounds in 20 minutes of work.

The Owls went with a small lineup to start the game against the Buccaneers as 6-4 senior guard Semaj Inge replaced 7-0 senior center Sergio Olmos, who suffered an ankle injury Wednesday.  The Cherry and White’s four-guard lineup worked well as the Owls opened the game with three-pointers by Brooks and Christmas to take a 6-0 lead that they would never relinquish.

The margin would grow to double-figures by the second media timeout, 16-5, following a layup by junior guard Luis Guzman, who seemed to get to every loose ball en route to a six-rebound, and career-high tying five assist performance. 

Temple broke the game open minutes later courtesy of a 12-0 run led by Christmas, who drained two of his five treys in the stretch and dished one of his assists, finding an open Allen for two points, to make the score 35-15 with just under six minutes remaining in the half. 

The Buccaneers whittled the margin to 10 with 1:19 on the clock with Kevin Tiggs scoring seven of his nine points in 9-0 run, but Moore finished the final minute with six points.  The 2007 Philadelphia Public League MVP stole the ball at midcourt and took it in for a lay-up.  The 6-4 guard was fouled on the play and converted the traditional three-point play before nailing a trey at the buzzer to give the Owls a 44-28 lead at intermission.

The Owls quickly rebuilt their lead to 20 points in the second half, extending it to 62-38 on a Christmas layup with just under 12 minutes to play. 

ETSU made a late 14-3 run as the play got sloppy for the Owls, cutting the margin under double figures (72-63) for the first time since midway through the first half. Inge then converted two free throws, something TU struggled with all night (10-19 from line).  Allen added a power dunk and Brooks made a layup to cap a mini Temple run and put the game away.

“I think we can play better but a lot of that is first game and I am sure that the East Tennessee State squad felt like they could play better as well,” said Dunphy.

Other notables for the Owls in the opener included the first-ever three-pointer by sophomore forward Craig Williams and a two-point, five-rebound performance by freshman Micheal Eric in nine minutes of action.