Dionte Christmas scored 23 points to lead Temple to a 68-59 Big 5 win over Saint Joseph's.

March 5, 2009

Temple defeated city rival Saint Joseph's for the fourth straight time with a 68-59 victory in front of a near-sellout crowd at the Liacouras Center. The Owls' three seniors, who were honored in a pre-game ceremony, each played important roles in the win, with Dionte Christmas scoring a game-high 23 points in his final game in the building.

"Tonight was a real critical game for us after two tough losses," head coach Fran Dunphy said. "I thought our seniors were great tonight."

The Cherry and White (18-11, 10-5 A-10) is currently in fourth place in the league standings, one game ahead of Duquesne with only Saturday's visit to George Washington on the schedule. But since the Owls hold the tiebreaker over the Dukes thanks to a February 15 victory in Pittsburgh, Temple will garner an extra day of rest before competing on Thursday in Atlantic City.

Christmas took a while to heat up, missing his first three shots before getting into the scoring column on a pull-up jumper with 9:11 to play before halftime. His 23 points are the most for the Philadelphia native since pouring in 27 on February 8 against Rhode Island. He also added eight rebounds and three assists.

"There was a lot of emotion in a game like this," Christmas said. "I tried to put the emotions aside and just play."

Two other seniors, Semaj Inge and Sergio Olmos, also willed Temple to victory. Inge scored all nine of his points in the first half, including six during a 14-4 run that gave the Owls the lead for good midway through the opening stanza.

Olmos finished with 14 points and six rebounds, while limiting Saint Joseph's star Ahmad Nivins to 6-for-16 shooting from the floor. Nivins still managed 17 points and 16 rebounds, but had to work for every shot, as the 7-0 Olmos contested his every move.

"Serg didn't get a whole lot of help on Nivins," Dunphy said. "As good as he was offensively, and he was very good, he was terrific defensively."

Temple managed to win without much help offensively from its second and third leading scorers in Lavoy Allen and Ryan Brooks. Allen was saddled with foul trouble all game, playing only 15 minutes and contributing four points. Brooks took just two field goal attempts and had two points.

The Hawks led 17-10 midway through the first half, but TU rallied back to take its first and last lead on a Christmas three with 4:39 to play before intermission to give the hosts a 24-21 lead.

The advantage would grow to 34-23 just after halftime, but Saint Joseph's went on a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to just two. But back-to-back threes by Christmas and sophomore Craig Williams (11 points, career-high nine rebounds) in a span of 40 seconds built the lead back to nine and the Owls never looked back.

Unlike last month at The Palestra, when TU struggled from the line to let the Hawks back in the game down the stretch, the Owls were solid from the charity stripe in the closing minutes. Temple was 11-for-13 in the final 2:31 tonight to seal the Big 5 victory. The Owls finished the City Series with a 2-2 record.

"That was a little more pleasing to the soul than the last time we played," Dunphy said.

St. Joe's (15-14, 8-7) struggled offensively and had just four players in the scoring column. Tasheed Carr had 22 to lead the Hawks.

Temple finished its home slate with a 9-2 record at the Liacouras Center.