Temple University Athletics
Temple Travels To Duquesne For Saturday Showdown
1.26.07 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 26, 2007
PITTSBURGH - The Temple men's basketball team has no time to recover from its 76-74 emotional loss at Penn as the Owls head back on the road for two games starting Saturday night (7:00 p.m./1210 AM WPHT) at Duquesne. The Cherry and White (7-11, 1-4) will be looking to snap a two-game skid while the Dukes (6-11, 2-4) are fresh off a home win over Dayton (93-89, 1/24). The Owls play at Richmond Wednesday night.
Sophomore Dionte Christmas, the reigning A-10 co-Player of the Week, posted his second straight 30-point game, tallying a career-high 34 points in the loss to Penn. The 6-5 guard leads the Owls and the conference in scoring with a 20.9 average. The 6-5 guard had scored 31 points against Rhode Island on Jan. 20, Senior guard Dustin Salisbery is second on the team and ninth in the conference in scoring (16.7 ppg.) while junior guard Mark Tyndale averages 15.3 points per game. Senior forward Dion Dacons (7.1 ppg.) is ninth in the A-10 in rebounding (7.2 rpg.) with sophomore guard Semaj Inge (4.9 ppg.) rounding out Temple's undersized starting five.
Duquense, like Temple, is under the direction of a new head coach. Ron Everhart, who compiled an 82-68 record in five seasons at Northeastern, has weathered a tumultuous season off the court to lead the Dukes to twice as many wins as the 2005-06 squad (3-24) compiled during the entire campaign. Freshman forward Robert Mitchell leads the Dukes in scoring with an 18.4 scoring average. Junior center Kieron Achara is second in scoring (19.3 ppg.) while topping the squad with a 6.0 rebound average. Sophomore guard Aaron Jackson (11.2 ppg.) runs the offense and ranks fifth in the A-10 in assists per game (3.88 apg.) while freshman swingman Scott Grote also averages double figures (10.4 ppg.).
Temple leads the series, 35-12 and has won the last three meetings and 11 of the previous 12. The lone Duquesne win in that stretch came on January 8, 2003, a 71-64 win at the Palumbo Center.
