Temple University Athletics
Dionte Christmas Named Athlete Of The Month
2.8.07 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 8, 2007
PHILADELPHIA - Temple University sophomore Dionte Christmas has been named Owlsports.com Athlete of the Month for the month of January. Christmas, a three-time Owlsports.com Athlete of the Week, shared the honored with women's basketball standout Kamesha Hairston for the month of December.
Christmas averaged 22.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals over the Owls' nine January games. The 6-4 guard connected on 59-of-129 (.457) shots from the field, 30-of-65 (.462) from three-point range and 50-of-56 (.893) from the line.
The Atlantic 10 Conference's leading scorer (21.6 ppg.) became the first Temple Owl since Terence Stansbury (1983) to score 30-or-more points in three consecutive games. The Philadelphia native (Philadelphia Lutheran Christian Academy) tallied a then career-high 31 points against Rhode Island on Jan. 20. He followed that with a career-high 34 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field (5-7 3PT, 7-7 FTs) at Penn (1/24). He then scored a game-high 30 points on nine-of-17 shooting (4-10 3PT, 8-11 FTs) at Duquesne (1/27).
At Duquesne, Christmas suffered a laceration of the webbing between his third and fourth fingers of his left hand which required 17 stitches. He started the next game, and despite playing with his hand bandaged, scored 21 points to help the Cherry and White snap a three-game losing streak with an 80-59 win at Richmond.
For the season, Christmas averages 21.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game. He ranks second in the A-10 in three-pointers made per game (3.05), fourth in field goal percentage (.512) and free throw percentage (.891) and fifth in three-point percentage (.444)
Temple (10-12, 4-5) hosts Massachusetts (16-6, 6-2) on Sunday (2:00 p.m./1210 AM).
