Temple University Athletics
Last Second Shot Falls Short As Temple Falls To Buffalo, 64-62
11.27.06 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 27, 2006
PHILADELPHIA - Senior guard Dustin Salisbery's three-point attempt with seven seconds remaining in regulation kicked off the back-iron as the Buffalo Bulls knocked off the Temple Owls, 64-62, on Monday evening, spoiling the Liacouras Center debut of head coach Fran Dunphy. Junior guard Dionte Christmas led all Temple scorers with a career-high 23 points on seven-for-15 shooting while sophomore guard Eric Moore paced the Bulls with a career-high 21 points on seven-for-14 shooting.
Following an early 16-9 Cherry and White advantage, capped off by a Salisbery fast-break dunk, the Owls went more than nine minutes without a field goal in sustaining a 32-31 advantage through the first 20 minutes. Behind a stale 33 percent (10-30) team-shooting clip, Temple's offensive production was led by the career-high outputs of Christmas and sophomore guard Semaj Inge. Christmas, coming off a 12-point performance on three-for-six shooting at Kent State, tallied 14 first-half points, including two-for-five from beyond the arc. Inge produced his first career double-digit outing as an Owl in tallying 10 points on four-for-six shooting.
The Bulls (5-2) were led by senior forward Yassin Idbihi's first half double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds). Idbihi, coming into the night's contest tops on the Bulls scoring chart with a 13.0 ppg average, was complimented by Moore, who had eight of his career- high points in the stanza.
After a slow one-for-seven shooting clip in the first half, Salisbery responded with nine of the Owls' first 11 points to start the second stanza. However, Buffalo kept pace and managed a 45-43 advantage at the 11:11 mark behind three trifectas from Moore and one trey from sophomore guard Andy Robinson.
Temple junior forward DaShone Kirkendoll, playing a bulk of his 18 minutes in the second frame, drained two three-balls and Christmas converted a lay-up to even the score at 53. Buffalo then ran off seven unanswered points, two Moore free throws, a Greg Gamble jumper and another Robinson triple to make it 60-53 with 3:51 remaining. Following two free throws from senior forward Parnell Smith, the Cherry and White sense of urgency resulted in Christmas adding seven points before Salisbery's game-winner didn't fall.
"We have to do that much sooner than we did tonight," said Dunphy.
Conceding to a combined 21 points from Moore and Robinson in the second half, Idbihi finished the night with 12 points and 14 rebounds.
The Cherry and White, plagued by a 42-20 rebounding disadvantage in the loss to Kent State, matched the over-sized Bulls on the glass to the tune of 38-38. However, performance from the charity stripe was a different story as the visitors were aided by 88.2 (15-17) percent shooting while the Owls could only convert 50 percent of their attempts (12-24).
The Owls continue their season-high four-game homestand Wednesday night against Rutgers at 7:00 p.m.
