Temple University Athletics
Temple Celebrates Senior Night Thursday With Key Game Against Saint Joseph's
3.2.09 | Men's Basketball
March 2, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - Temple will celebrate the careers of Dionte Christmas, Semaj Inge and Sergio Olmos on Senior Night Thursday (7:00 p.m./CBS College Sports/1210 AM WPHT) and hope the trio will help lead the Cherry and White to a critical win over rival Saint Joseph's in their final home game at the Liacouras Center. The Owls (17-11, 9-5 A-10, 1-2 Big 5) need a victory to stay ahead of the Hawks (15-13, 8-6, 1-2) in the A-10 standings. Temple is currently in fourth place in the A-10, one game ahead of SJU, Duquesne and Saint Louis.
The game features the top two scorers in the Atlantic 10 Conference and arguably the top two candidates for A-10 Player of the Year in Christmas and SJU's Ahmad Nivins. Nivins (19.8 ppg.,11.4 rpg.) leads the conference in scoring and rebounding with Christmas (19.5 ppg.), who is looking to become the first player to lead the A-10 in scoring in three straight seasons, right behind.
Christmas, who just passed Mardy Collins to move into fourth place on the Temple all-time scoring list (1,926 points), led the Owls to 61-59 win over Saint Joseph's at The Palestra in the first meeting of the season on Feb. 12. The 6-5 guard posted his fourth double-double of the season, scoring a team-high 19 points and grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds. Nivins had a game-high 21 points in the contest. Temple led by 11, 57-46, with one minute remaining before holding off a furious SJU rally.
The teams are each others most frequent all-time opponent, having met at least once a year since the 1931-32 season. This is the 147th meeting in the series with Temple owning an 81-65 advantage. The Cherry and White has won the last three meetings, the longest TU win streak in the series since 2000.
Besides Christmas, Inge and Olmos, Temple will also honor senior managers Tyler Deane and Raheem Mapp in a pregame ceremony.
