Temple University Athletics
Christmas, Tyndale Lead Owls To 75-70 Win At Towson
12.16.06 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 16, 2006
TOWSON, MD -
Sophomore Dionte Christmas scored a career-high 29 points and junior Mark Tyndale contributed 14 points in his season debut to lead Temple to a 75-70 win over Towson Saturday afternoon at the Towson Center. The Owls, 4-3, picked up their first road win of the season while the Tigers, 5-4, suffered their first home defeat.
The game marked the long awaited arrival of Tyndale, who was academically ineligible to compete during the first six games of the season. The 6-5 guard regained his eligibility Friday and looked like right at home on the court.
"I am just so excited to be back," said Tyndale, who also grabbed eight rebounds. "My family and the guys have been behind me. I have been working hard at practice and Coach Dunphy has done a good job of working me in with the first team."
Tyndale entered the game at the 10:52 mark of the first half and made his presence known instantly; driving to the basket for a lay-up on the very first offensive possession he was on the floor. That started an 11-2 Temple run that gave the Owls a 29-12 lead in the contest.
A Tyndale three-pointer pushed the margin to 18 points, 32-14, with 4:45 remaining in the half, but a 16-8 Towson run to close the half cut the Owls' lead to 38-30 at intermission.
"Not a lot (of rust)," said Temple head coach Fran Dunphy on Tyndale's play. "The fact that he could practice with us helped. He is very much a competitor. He gets himself to the line, today (7-11). That is the activity he can brings to you."
Christmas, who made a career-high nine field goals (14 attempts), played stifling defense on Tiger senior guard Gary Neal throughout the first half. Neal, who entered the game as the 12th leading scorer in the country (22.5 ppg.), made just one field goal on eight shots over the first 20 minutes for six points.
"All week Coach was stressing to me that I have to stop Gary and I have to get in his face," said Christmas, the Atlantic 10 Conference scoring leader (21.7 ppg.). "My mindset coming into this game was that I have to work as hard as him. I had to work extra hard on defense, stay in his face, contest every shot. My teammates also helped me out a lot (on defense)."
"Here you are asking your leading scorer at this point to also do the dirty work on the defensive end," said Dunphy. "I thought he did a really good job...It was nice to see he wanted the challenge (of guarding Neal)."
Neal drained his first three-pointer to cap a 5-0 mini-run to start the second half, cutting the margin to three points, 38-35. Christmas, who also dished a career-high five assists, scored five points in a 7-0 Temple run to make it 45-35 with 17:23 remaining.
The Owls held the Tigers at bay over the next 11 minutes, before a 9-2 run over a five-minute span brought the margin to a mere three points, 66-63, with 1:32 on the clock. Senior forward Dennard Abraham, who scored a team-high 25 points, had four of the points in the run. Abraham was a force inside for Pat Kennedy's Tigers, shooting 10-15 from the field and pulling down nine rebounds.
"He was really tough," said Dunphy on Abraham. "I was really impressed with his poise and his positioning."
Dustin Salisbery, who recorded his first career-double (14 points, 12 rebounds) since game five of his freshman year, drove down the lane for a lay-up to make it 68-63. After Neal drained two free throws, Tyndale (2-2) and Christmas (3-4) connected in five free throws to help seal the win.
Dion Dacons, who fouled out in the final minute, matched his career-high set last Saturday against Cincinnati with 10 points. Sergio Olmos had a solid offensive game, contributing eight points over 24 minutes.
Neal, the former La Salle standout, finished with 20 points on six-of-20 shooting from the field (2-10 from long-range).
"He is very difficult to guard, but if you said to me his percentages would be what they were today I would have taken that," said Dunphy.
Towson won the battle of the boards, 40-33, but Temple had fewer turnovers (10) than its opponents (14) for the seventh straight game.
Temple will look for its second road win of the season Tuesday when it travels to Mid-American Conference foe Ball State (7:00 p.m.).
