Temple University Athletics
Temple University
Massachusetts
Brooks' Career Day Leads #19/21 Temple Past UMass, 76-64
1.16.10 | Men's Basketball
Owl guard scores career-high 29 and joins 1000-point club
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PHILADELPHIA - Senior guard Ryan Brooks scored a career-high 29 points, including his 1000th point, to lead the #19/21 Temple Owls to a 76-64 win over the visiting UMass Minutemen Saturday afternoon at the Liacouras Center. The Owls have now won four in a row and 11 of their last 12 games to improve to 15-3 overall and 3-0 in Atlantic 10 Conference play. The Minutemen fall to 7-10 and 1-3 in league play.
Brooks, who will always be known as head coach Fran Dunphy's first recruit at Temple, has paid dividends to the program over his career. As a sixth man, he helped lead the Owls to the 2008 Atlantic 10 Conference championship, and in his first year as a starter, he helped TU repeat in 2009.
Now, as a senior co-captain, the Narberth, Pa. native has lifted Temple back into the national spotlight with the program's first national ranking since 2001. His goal now is to help the Cherry and White to its first NCAA win since that year.
Entering the game, he needed 14 points to reach the 1000-point mark. With his 15.3 scoring average, that number would look to be late in the game, if at all. Brooks, however, came out on fire, and his fourth three-pointer of the game gave him exactly 1,000 and the Owls a 30-13 lead with just under eight minutes left in the half.
"It's definitely a great accomplishment for me," Brooks said. "I knew about it coming into the game and just wanted to go out there and focus on getting the 'W' most importantly."
Craig Williams would follow with a three-pointer and Ramone Moore added two free throws to give the Owls their largest lead, 35-13, two minutes later.
Temple would hold off the Minutemen, who would not get closer than seven, the rest of the contest.
The Owls made a season-high 14 three-pointers on 25 attempts (56%) with Brooks leading the way with a career-high seven treys.
When the Minutemen cut an 18-point lead to seven (58-51) by virtue of a 13-2 run midway through the second half, it was the Owls long-range shooting that bailed them out.
After two free throws by Lavoy Allen (6 points, 14 rebounds), his first points of the day, Juan Fernandez (15 points, 4-5 3-pointers) and Williams drained treys to push the margin to a comfortable 66-53.
UMass, led by Anthony Gurley's 20 points, never cut the margin beneath nine the remainder of the contest.
Brooks, one of the top lockdown defenders in the A-10, did just that to UMass leading scorer Ricky Harris, holding him to 11 points on 5-of-17 shooting (1-7 three-pointers).
"The best part of his game was his defense against Harris," Dunphy said.
The Owls' other senior co-captain, Luis Guzman, added nine points and a season-high-tying seven assists.
Temple next hosts Xavier, who sits atop the A-10 with a 4-0 record after a win over Dayton today, on Wednesday night (7:00 p.m./The Comcast Network).
