Temple University Athletics
Owls Upset No. 1 Seed Xavier 55-53, Move to A-10 Finals
3.13.09 | Men's Basketball
March 13, 2009
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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Dionte Christmas scored 20 points- including two huge three-pointers in the final two minutes of play - as the fourth-seed Temple stunned top-seed and #19/19 Xavier 55-53 in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Championship from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
The Owls now move on to the championship game on Saturday (6:00 p.m./ESPN2/1210 AM WPHT) to take on seventh-seed Duquesne, a 77-66 winner over third-seed Dayton.Temple will look to become the first team to successfully defend its title since 2001 when that Owl team repeated as A-10 champions.
The championship appearance is the 15th in school history, more than any other team in the conference. Temple will also be playing for its eighth A-10 Championship, also the most in the conference.
Christmas, mired in a month-long shooting slump, picked the right to find his stroke. The All-America candidate scored the Owls' final eight points, including two gigantic three-pointers in a 30-second span that won the game for the Owls.
With the Cherry and White clinging to a 48-47 lead with 1:42 remaining, Christmas drilled a three from the left wing to give the Owls their largest lead of the game at 51-47.
The three-point shot by Christmas may have been the biggest in the stars' illustrious career. Not only did it give the Owls their first two-possession lead of the game, but Christmas became Temple's all-time leader in three-pointers-made and became the first person in Temple history to score 600 points in three consecutive seasons.
"Good shooters go into slumps, but Coach Dunphy had all the confidence in the world in me," said Christmas. "Toward the end of the game, my teammates said `It's your time' and I think I did a good job of delivering for them."
After two free-throws by Xavier's B.J. Raymond cut the lead down to 51-49, Christmas responded with yet another three-pointer, this time from the top of key, giving the Owls a 54-49 lead with 1:09 to play.
A jumper by Xavier's Derrick Brown cut the lead to 54-51 with 15 seconds to play, but Christmas responded with two free throws with seven seconds left to ice the game for the Owls.
Along with the performance of Christmas, the story of the game was the play of the defense. Playing arguably their best defensive ball of the season, the Owls limited the Musketeers to 34 percent shooting, forced 15 turnovers and held the Musketeers to just two field goals over the final seven minutes of play, one of which came as time expired.
The Owls held the Musketeers to season lows in points and field-goal percentage.
"Defense is really where they make their money. You can throw a lot of the game plan out the window," said head coach Fran Dunphy. "It's like trying to get blood from a stone trying to score. We made enough plays to get the victory, but it was a hard-fought game."
Sophomore Lavoy Allen recorded his 12th double-double of the season, scoring 10 points and pulling down a team-high 11 rebounds. Senior Ryan Brooks added nine points and seven rebounds. The Owls also got solid contributions from senior Sergio Olmos (five points, four blocks, four rebounds), freshman Juan Fernandez (six points) and senior Semaj Inge (five points, five rebounds).
"It seemed like every time we needed a huge rebound, Semaj stepped up and got it, especially late in the game," said Dunphy. "Lavoy had a great rebounding night tonight and also made a couple big baskets for us. He's just toughing it out and giving everything he's got."
For Xavier, Brown scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half, while first team All-Atlantic 10 guard Raymond scored 15 of his 18 points in the second half.
After Xavier jumped out to an early 11-4 lead, the Owls rallied with a 7-0 run to tie game at 11. From that point on, the game was tight throughout, with neither team leading by more than five points for the rest of the game.
Allen's jumper from the middle of the paint with 1:20 left would give the Owls a 31-30 lead heading into the locker room.
Temple finished the game 15-for-22 from the foul line, while limiting the Musketeers to just five free throws.
The Owls improve to 5-0 against Xavier in the Atlantic 10 Championship.
