Temple University Athletics

Thursday, January 10
Cincinnati, OH
7:00 PM

Temple University

at

Xavier

Scootie Randall
Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Men's Basketball Opens A10 Play at Xavier Thursday

1.8.13 | Men's Basketball

Game Notes | Live Stats | Live Audio

CINCINNATI -
The Temple men's basketball team opens its final season of Atlantic 10 Conference play at one of the toughest venues in the league, the Cintas Center, where the Owls will face perennial A10 title contender Xavier Thursday evening (7:00 pm,/1210 AM WPHT).  Temple (10-3, 0-0) has only defeated Xavier (7-6, 0-0) once in six games at the Cintas Center, that victory coming in 2005, and the Musketeers have won 47 of their last 48 A10 games in the building.

Temple, under the direction of head coach Fran Dunphy, is coming off a tough 69-62 loss to #6/6 Kansas in another formidable arena, Allen Fieldhouse.  Senior guard Khalif Wyatt, who scored a game-high 26 points Sunday at KU, leads the Owls in scoring (16.2 ppg.) and assists (4.0 apg.).  Two other TU starters, senior guard Scootie Randall (12.5 ppg., 7.5 rpg.) and sophomore forward Anthony Lee (11.3 ppg., 7.1 rpg.) also average double figures while ranking one-two respectively in rebounding.

Senior forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson (8.5 ppg.) and sophomore guard Will Cummings (6.1 ppg.) round out the Owls' starting five.  Hollis-Jefferson tops the team in blocks (17) and is tied with Cummings, who tallied a career-high 11 points at Kansas, for team honors in assists (24). 

Temple employs a nine-man rotation with graduates Jake O'Brien (7.6 ppg.) and T.J. DiLeo (3.1 ppg.) the first two off the bench while junior Dalton Pepper (2.4 ppg.) and freshman Quenton DeCosey (3.2 ppg.) also play quality minutes.

Xavier, under the direction of head coach Chris Mack, will be looking to snap a four-game skid with the last loss coming at Wake Forest (66-59) on Saturday.   Freshman Semaj Christon leads XU in scoring (13.4 ppg.), assists (4.8 apg.) and steals (1.5 spg.).  Senior Travis Taylor (11.8 ppg.) tops the Musketeers in rebounding (7.4 rpg.) while sophomore Dee Davis also averages double-figures (10.0 ppg.).

Temple leads the series 13-10 and won last year's meeting at the Liacouras Center, 85-72 (2-11-12).
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