Temple University Athletics
Temple Posts Easy 96-73 Win Over Outmatched Lafayette
12.28.06 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2006
PHILADELPHIA - Dustin Salisbery scored a game-high 26 points while Dionte Christmas and Mark Tyndale each added 20 points to lead Temple to an easy 96-73 win over Lafayette at the Liacouras Center Thursday night. The Owls (6-4) rebounded from their worst offensive output of the season (54 to Drexel) to post the most points of the season and second highest in the building's 10-year history. Lafayette falls to 6-8 on the season.
Temple started off sluggishly against the Leopards' match-up zone defense. Head coach Fran Dunphy called a timeout just 30 seconds into the contest with his team trailing 3-0. The Leopards pushed their lead to 7-2, before the Owls started to find the range against the zone defense they used to practice during the John Chaney Era.
A Christmas three-pointer capped a 7-2 run that deadlocked the game at 9-9, but Lafayette, coached by Dunphy's good friend and former assistant at Penn Fran O'Hanlon continued to hang around. The Leopards kept it close, trailing just 21-18 with 11:22 on the clock, before a 16-3 Owl run broke the game open. Salisbery, who made nine-of-15 shots (3-6 3PT), eight of his points in the run. Temple finished the first half with 50 points, the most in Liacouras Center history, and a 13-point lead.
A Matt Bentley jumper to start the second stanza cut the deficit to 11, but the Leopards would not get closer the remainder of the contest. A seven-point run capped by a Salisbery three, pushed the margin to 18 (61-43) with just under 17 to play. It remained there until consecutive layups by Dion Dacons (10 points) increased the margin to 25, 79-54, at the 10-minute mark.
An 11-1 spurt over a three-minute stretch gave Temple its largest margin, 90-62, with 6:43 remaining and had Owl fans excited about their team's first 100-point game since Feb. 4, 1988 (110-70 win over Duquesne). The Owls were able to add just six more points the rest of the way as Dunphy cleared the bench.
Temple shot 51.8 percent from the field and set season highs for free throws made (28), attempted (35) and free throw percentage (80%) in a contest. Dacons and Salisbery led the team with eight rebounds to lead Temple to a 44-31 advantage on the glass.
Marcus Harley led Lafayette with 23 points.
The highlight of the night came at halftime when the 11 surviving members of the 1955-56 Temple Final Four team were honored.
The Owls now travel to Villanova to open their Big 5 season against the Wildcats at The Pavilion Saturday night (7:00 p.m./ESPNU/1210 WPHT).
