Men's Basketball Travels To The Palestra For Wednesday Clash With Penn :: Dunphy to take on school he guided to nine NCAA Tournaments

Jan. 12, 2009

PHILADELPHIA - No game is more personal to Temple head coach Fran Dunphy than his team's annual meeting with the Penn Quakers. This year's battle takes place Wednesday night (7:00 p.m./CN8/1210 AM WPHT) when the Owls (8-6) travel to The Palestra, the historic venue that Dunphy patrolled the sidelines for 17 years as Penn's head coach, to take on the Quakers (3-7).

The Owls are coming off a 75-68 win over La Salle, Dunphy's alma mater ('70), in their Atlantic 10 Conference season opener. All-America candidate Dionte Christmas scored a game-high 30 points, his 10th career 30-point game, to lead the Cherry and White to its third straight victory. The 6-5 senior guard continues to lead the Atlantic 10 and Philadelphia Big 5 with a 21.0 scoring average. He recently passed Aaron McKie, Mike Vreeswyk and Granger Hall to move into ninth place on the Owls' all-time scoring list with 1,675 points.

Junior Ryan Brooks (10.8 ppg.) and sophomore Lavoy Allen (10.0 ppg.), who scored a career-high 21 points in the La Salle win, also average double figures for the Owls. Allen tops the team in rebounding (7.4 rpg.) while senior guard Semaj Inge leads the squad with 54 assists.

Sophomore Tyler Bernardini leads Penn, winners of two straight, with a 15.1 scoring averages. Head coach Glen Miller, who took over the reins from Dunphy in 2007, also has two other double figure scorers, sophomore Jack Eggleston (11.3 ppg.) and senior Brennan Votel (10.5 ppg.).

The Owls lead the all-time series 41-22, and have won four of the last five meetings. The last Penn win came in Dunphy's first visit to The Palestra as Temple's head coach, 76-74, on January 24, 2007.