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The Temple Owls knocked off the number-eight ranked Tennessee Volunteers, 88-72, on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia.  The Owls got a season-high 35 points from star guard Dionte Christmas, who shot an astounding 7-of-15 from three-point range. Christmas only scored five points in the first half, but he got help from guard Ryan Brooks and center Sergio Olmos.  Brooks finished the game with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field while Olmos had a great all-around game with 19 points, nine rebounds, five blocks and three assists.  Olmos and Brooks set the tone early with Christmas still struggling and led Temple to a 34-25 halftime lead over the Vols.

With the pressure off, Christmas went off and at one point could not seem to miss from beyond the three-point arc.  Tennessee was slowly shrinking Temple’s lead and drew to within four points at 52-48 with just over 11 minutes remaining in the game.  But Christmas decided to put the game in his own hands at this point scoring 13 points in the next two-and-a-half minutes giving Temple a 67-52 lead.  Tennessee was never able to fully recover from that huge burst by Christmas and the Owls, leading to Temple’s first win over a top-ten ranked team since 2002.

Dionte Christmas was coming off a two point effort against Penn State and with only scoring five points in the first half in this game against Tennessee, many were wondering if the pressure was getting to him.  But he came back to life in the second half and gave Temple Owls fans an early “Christmas” present with this monster non-conference win.

As stated in prior articles, the Owls supporting cast needs to take the pressure off Christmas so he doesn’t think he has to do it all.  In the game against Penn State, point guard Semaj Inge put up a career-high 19 points to lead the Owls to a good road victory.  Today it was Olmos with a career-high of 19 points and he was a big reason why Temple was able to pull off this upset.

Olmos was also a huge presence in the middle blocking five shots and clogging up the lane, which forced an extremely quick and athletic Tennessee team to take 26 three-point shots.  The Volunteers only made six of those three-point shots and perhaps their best three-point shooter, guard Cameron Tatum, was 0-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Tennessee was without their top backcourt player J.P. Prince, who injured his ankle in practice and will get an X-ray this week.  Star Volunteer players Wayne Chism and Tyler Smith combined for 26 points, but only shot a combined 8-of-24 from the field.  Temple’s defensive schemes held Tennessee to under 37% shooting, including 23% from beyond the three-point arc.

This balanced scoring attack and stifling defense is the formula for the Temple Owls to have a successful season.  This performance against Tennessee is show what the Owls are capable of and perhaps this is the beginning of a memorable season for Coach Fran Dunphy’s bunch.

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