Christmas arrived early at Towson Saturday, and was not kind to the Tigers? men?s basketball team.
Temple guard Dionte Christmas scored 29 points to pace the Owls offense in a 75-70 win in front of an announced crowd of 2,473 crazed fans at the Towson Center.
The Tigers (5-4) came out flat in their first game against the Owls (4-3), but kept up the intensity behind a vocal crowd. And despite trimming the lead to just points with less than a minute remaining, the Tigers still have to learn how to finish.
“These are games we still have to learn how to win ? position ourselves to win and make the plays down the stretch,” Towson coach Pat Kennedy said.
The loss snapped a streak of two straight wins over tough opponents.
“We did not look as sharp as we had the past two games,” said Kennedy, who admitted there was plenty to learn from the loss. “The guys showed some great heart and great effort, and we made some great plays down the stretch.”
Christmas, who shot 4-of-9 from three-point range, was also tough on the defensive end. The sophomore held Towson guard Gary Neal to 20 points, and limiting the team?s leading scorer to 2-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. The suffocating defense wasn?t anything uncommon to Neal, who entered the game averaging 22.5 points per game.
“I?ve seen that throughout the whole season so far,” Neal said. “He played good position defense. I still think I had open looks that I missed.”
Temple got out to an 18-point lead, but senior forward Dennard Abraham kept the Tigers in the game. Abraham outplayed Owls? 7-foot center Sergio Olmos, and scored 25 points with nine rebounds.
“I thought he did a terrific job,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “I was really impressed with him.”
Towson nearly cut Temple?s lead to one point with about three minutes remaining when Neal drove the lane and kicked the ball out to a wide-open Tim Crossin in the corner. Crossin?s three-point attempt rimmed out, and with it, Towson?s hopes of an upset fell short.
“I thought if Timmy had hit that ? the place would have gone nuts,” Kennedy said. “But at least they left here today saying great game.”
Next up for Towson is another non-conference game, against Georgetown University Wednesday at Verizon Center in Washington.
