Temple University Athletics
Men's Basketball Falls To Two-Time Defending Champion Florida, 86-69
12.29.07 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 29, 2007
SUNRISE, FL - Dionte Christmas was red-hot, tying his season-high with 32, but the entire Florida team was even hotter as the two-time defending National Champion Gators defeated the Temple Owls, 86-69, in the Orange Bowl Classic Saturday night at the BankAtlantic Center. The Owls fall to 6-6 with the loss while the Gators improve to 12-2.
Christmas single-handedly kept Temple in the contest in the first half, tallying 18 of his points in the frame. The 6-5 guard really heated up late in the period, scoring 10 of the Owls' points in a 12-2 run that cut the Gator 11-point advantage with 3:33 on the clock to three points, 37-34, at intermission.
"Scoring 32 points and losing does not mean anything I would have felt better if I had scored two points in a win," said Christmas on his performance which tied for the second most points in an Orange Bowl Classic game.
Florida offset Christmas' highlight reel game with balanced play. Five players topped double figures for head coach Billy Donovan's club, which had to replace all five starters from last year's NCAA title team.
Sophomore center Marreese Speights with a career-high-tying 20 points. The 6-10 Gator post player made seven-of-10 shots from the field and all six of his free throws to help open up the perimeter for his teammates. The Gators took advantage, converting 11 of 20 from behind the arc, and a lofty 60.8 percent (31-51) overall from the field.
"In the first half I thought there were a number of times where Serge (Olmos) did a good job on Speights and he made a couple of really just impossible shots to his credit," said Temple head coach Fran Dunphy. "You are hoping that they all don't get into a rhythm and in the second half (Walter) Hodge makes a couple and (Nick) Calathes makes a big one and (Dan) Werner makes another one on us. They all can play and are really good basketball players. You can not just stop one part of their offense. They are a real good basketball team."
Florida broke the game open early in the second half, and never looked back. Holding a 46-42 lead with 16:18 remaining, Calathes (14 points, 8 assists), who's brother Pat is a senior guard at Saint Joseph's, scored five straight points. Christmas buried a three-pointer to bring the margin back to six (51-45), but Jonathan Mitchell, who was a perfect six-of-six from the field, drained consecutive treys and Calathes added another to make it 61-45 with 12:20 to play.
The owls would not cut the margin under double figures the remainder of the contest.
Besides Christmas, who made 11-of-17 (4-9 3 pt.) from the floor, Temple shot just 14-of-36 overall and 2-of-12 from behind the arc. Senior Mark Tyndale, who was second in the scoring column for TU, had a miserable shooting game, making just three-of-13 from the field (0-4 3pt) for seven points. The Owls even struggled from the line, hitting just 13-of-22 (59.1%) from the charity stripe.
Temple was unable to pull in those missed shots, as Florida won the battle of the boards, 37-21. Chandler Parsons (12 points) pulled down a game-high eight rebounds while Christmas led the Cherry and White with six boards.
The Owls will now take a 10-day rest before hosting #10/10 Duke at the Wachovia Center on January 9 (7:00 p.m./ESPN/1210 AM WPHT).
