Temple University Athletics
Buffalo Tops Men's Basketball, 83-73
11.29.08 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2008
BUFFALO, NY - Junior guard Calvin Betts led a balanced scoring attack for Buffalo, scoring 18 points, to lead the Bulls past the visiting Temple Owls, 83-73, Saturday afternoon at Alumni Arena. With the loss, the Owls fall to 3-2 while the Bulls improved to 3-2.
Betts was one of five double-figure scorers for the Bulls, who shot 62 percent from the field from the second half to pull out the come-from-behind win.
Temple led throughout the entire first half and by as many as 12 in the second stanza, but the Owls' struggled to defend against the Bulls, especially on dribble penetration.
"Our defense was not good enough," said third-year head coach Fran Dunphy. "I thought their offense was great, particularly in the second half, but a lot of that was the poor quality of our defense. They deserve a lot of credit and we deserve no credit for how we defended them."
Trailing 56-44 with 13 minutes to play, Buffalo ran off 14 unanswered points, nine coming from junior guard Rodney Pierce (12 points), to take its first lead of the contest, 58-56, on an emphatic slam by senior guard Andy Robinson (13 points) with 9:45 on the clock.
The teams traded baskets four times until Betts made a lay-up and junior forward Matt Boudreau (11 points) hit a jumper to make it 66-62 with just under four minutes to play.
Senior Semaj Inge made two free throws to cut the margin to two points, but senior guard Greg Gamble's (15 points) lay-in brought the Bull lead back to four, 68-64.
All-America candidate Dionte Christmas, who led all scorers with 25 points, fed junior guard Ryan Brooks (13 points) for a lay-up to again move the Owls within one possession, with 2:38 remaining.
Betts and Boudreau followed with baskets and then the Bulls, a 53 percent free throw shooting team entering play, made eight of 10 from the charity strip over the final minute to close out the win.
The Owls, playing without leading rebounder Lavoy Allen, were beaten on the boards, 33-24. Senior Sergio Olmos, making his first appearance of the season following an ankle sprain, started in place of Allen, who suffered a fractured left thumb in the Lafayette game.
Olmos looked impressive in his first action of the season, scoring 12 points and making two blocks over 27 minutes. He split time with freshman Micheal Eric, as Dunphy tried to rest his senior center on the defensive end.
The Owls opened the game with a flurry, connecting on 10 of their first 12 shots, and quickly built a double-digit lead, 24-14, at the midway point of the first half. Christmas ignited the Cherry and White attack, draining four first half treys en route to 16 points in the period.
Olmos looked fresh despite missing the first four games of the season due to a sprained ankle. The 7-0 center scored eight of his 12 points in the first half while Inge rounded out the senior trifecta, contributing six points in the frame.
A Christmas trey extended Temple's lead to its largest of the frame, 34-20, at the 7:27 mark, but Buffalo scored six straight points and closed the half on a 13-5 run to trail by just six, 39-33, at intermission.
Temple opens the home portion of its schedule on Wednesday against Miami (OH) at 7:30 p.m. It is the second half of a doubleheader with the Temple women's basketball team, who host Dartmouth at 5:30 p.m.
