Temple University Athletics
Temple Falls At #9/9 Xavier, 83-74
2.5.09 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 5, 2009
CINCINNATI - Senior forward B.J. Raymond scored a game-high 24 points while shutting down the Atlantic 10 Conference's two-time scoring champion Dionte Christmas to lead #9/9 Xavier to an 83-74 win Thursday night in front of a sold out Cintas Center and a nationally-televised (ESPN) audience. Three other Musketeers joined Raymond in double figures as Xavier (20-2, 8-0 A-10) won its 11th straight game and improved its' A-10 home win streak to 21 games. Temple fell to 12-9, 4-3 in conference play.
Christmas, who entered play with a league-leading 3.45 three-pointers made, missed all three of his attempts and was held without a trey in consecutive games for the first time since the end of his freshman season. He finished with 12 points while tying a career-high with eight assists.
"B.J. Raymond is the greatest defender I faced this year," Christmas said. "He did a great job. He denied me the ball as much as possible and when I did get a little leeway by him his guys did a great job of stepping up and helping which forced me to pass and get other players involved."
"Raymond did a great job against him," echoed Temple coach Fran Dunphy. "But to Dionte's credit, he had eight assists against one turnover so he played basketball which was great."
While Raymond and the Musketeers were shutting down the Owls perimeter game, the inside play of senior Sergio Olmos and sophomore Lavoy Allen kept the Cherry and White in the contest.
Olmos, who scored a career-high 19 points in TU's upset of #8/8 Tennessee, nearly matched that in one of the most hostile environments in the nation. The 7-0 Spaniard ended with 18 points on eight of nine shooting, while also blocking three shots over 23 minutes.
"Serg had a pretty good game offensively," Dunphy said. "Then we got behind and had to go a little bit smaller."
Allen recorded his seventh double-double of the season, tallying 14 points and pulling down a game-high 14 rebounds. Craig Williams, still suffering from a knee injury, came off the bench to add a first half spark with two three-pointers for six points.
The Owls shot 44.3 percent from the field against the stingy Xavier defense, the second best percentage against the Musketeers. On the slip side, XU made 51.7 percent from the field and 11-of-18 three-pointers for 61.1 percent.
"We did not defend them very well," said Dunphy.
Raymond led the way from behind the arc, hitting five-of-seven from long range including two key treys in a 9-2 run that put the Musketeers in front for good, 18-16.
Raymond added another trey in a decisive stretch of 10 straight Musketeer points in the second half that gave XU a 52-39 advantage with 13:25 to play.
The lead grew to 17 on a Brad Redford (12 points, 4-7 3PT), 62-45, with 9:36 remaining.
The Owls were only able to whittle the margin down to nine points the remainder of the contest.
Ryan Brooks added 11 for the Owls while Jason Love and Derrick Brown each added 13 for the Musketeers.
The Owls return to the Liacouras Center Sunday for a 2:00 p.m. showdown with Rhode Island, a team that defeated the Cherry and White 67-59 on Jan. 28. It is the second game of a doubleheader with the Temple women taking on Saint Louis at noon. Temple will honor its 1969 NIT Championship team at halftime of the men's game.
