Temple University Athletics
Men's Basketball Cages Tigers In 69-46 Win
12.6.07 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 6, 2007
PHILADELPHIA - Behind its best defensive performance of the season, Temple cruised to a 69-46 rout of Towson Thursday night at the Liacouras Center. The Cherry and White improved to 4-4 with their second consecutive victory and fourth in their last five outings. Towson dropped its third consecutive game to fall to 3-5.
After winning the previous game behind an outstanding offensive performance, the Owls defense stepped up to the occasion in this one, never allowing the Tigers to get into any kind of shooting rhythm all evening. Temple's defense held the cold-shooting Tigers to an abysmal 23% shooting on the night. The 46 points scored by the Tigers was fewest by a Temple opponent all season. The Owls have now won 66 straight games when holding an opponent under 50 points.
"We have been working very hard at it (defense) in practice and as a team we played a good defensive game tonight," said Temple senior co-captain Mark Tyndale.
I would like to think we are getting better defensively" said Temple head coach Fran Dunphy. "But again we have to do a whole lot of work, and we did not rebound the ball particularly well."
Four Owls scored in double figures, led by junior Dionte Christmas with16 points. Christmas also tied his career-high with 11 rebounds. Freshmen forward Lavoy Allen may have played his best game for the Cherry and White, scoring a career-high 14 points. Senior Mark Tyndale added 12 points and a season-high 14 rebounds. Junior Ryan Brooks also added 10 points.
The Cherry and White defense came ready to play from the opening tip. The Owls held the Tigers to 17 first half points and 25% shooting. The 17 points allowed in the first half was the lowest by a Temple opponent this season.
Temple led throughout the first 10 minutes, but could not pull away from the Tigers until after the nine-minute mark. After a three-pointer by Towson forward Jonathan Pease made it a 17-13 game, the Owls went on a 13-2 run to take a commanding 30-15 lead. The stingy Cherry and White defense held the Tigers to just two points over the critical eight-minute stretch.
With Tyndale and Christmas unable to get going for much of the first half, Temple's trio of guards stepped up to fill the void. Senior co-captain Chris Clark, junior Ryan Brooks and Guzman combined for 14 first half points. Christmas led the Owls with 10 first half points, but eight of those came in the final four minutes of the half. Temple would take a 32-17 lead heading into the locker room.
It was much of the same in the second half, as the Temple defense held the Tigers to 20% shooting in the second half. The Tigers made a brief run in the second half, scoring seven consecutive points off Temple turnovers to cut the lead to 40-29. But that's as close as they would get, as a Tyndale slam from the baseline made the score 52-33, basically shutting the door on the game.
Towson was led by Rocky Coleman, who scored a team-high 15 points.
The Owls next host Villanova on Sunday (7:00 p.m./ESPNU/WPHT 1210 AM). The game marks the 10th Anniversary of the Liacouras Center. The first 5,000 fans will receive an Owl Rally Towel while the first 2,500 to enter the building will receive a commemorative tee-shirt.
