February 22, 2009

John Lamb| A10CollegeHoops

PHILADELPHIA – It was Dionte Christmas Bobblehead Doll day at the Liacouras Center on Sunday afternoon but Lavoy Allen ended up being the star of the show en route to a 70-56 victory over the visiting Saint Bonaventure Bonnies.

Allen put up 20 points and grabbed 18 a career-high rebounds. He was so dominant early on that he picked up his 10th double-double just eight minutes into the game.

To put his performance in perspective, Allen grabbed 14 rebounds through the first 20 minutes of play; the Bonnies (13-13, 4-9 A10), as a team, had 13.

Allen said Coach Fran Dunphy has been challenging him in practice to become a more prominent part of what the Owls (17-9, 9-3) are trying to do on the court.

“[Coach Dunphy] tells me that he wants me to be more aggressive, take more shots and stop passing the ball so much,” joked Allen, who still dished out two assists.

Most of the 6-9 sophomore forward’s points came from put-backs and uncontested dunks. Temple’s guards were able to penetrate the lane at will and hit Allen with simple dump passes after the defense rotated.

Dionte Christmas pointed out after the game that while his production may be down over the past few weeks the contributions of players like Allen and Ryan Brooks have been more than enough to keep the Owls winning.

“The last couple of weeks I haven’t had to score 25 or 30 points for our team to be successful,” said Christmas, who has not registered a 20 point game since he scored 27 against Rhode Island on January 28. “We are a balanced team. For me to be out there scoring 30 or 40 points a game there is no need. But if we need it and the team needs me to do anything then I’ll do it. If I score 5 and we win that is all I care about.”

Dunphy acknowledged in his post game press conference that Christmas is a good leader for the team but that there are a lot of outside pressures that he has been faced with in recent weeks such as his quest to become the first three-time leading scorer in A-10 history and his candidacy for Player of the Year in both the conference and Big 5.

“Dionte is a good leader, he is a good human being and I think that is the nicest compliment anybody can have given to them,” said Dunphy, who also stated that they do not talk to Christmas about the NBA. “He cares about his team, he cares about his family and that is a nice way to be. He is not overly concerned by himself about himself but at the same time there are a lot of outside pressures acting on his person at this time and I think he is handling it the best he can.”

Temple received a big time contribution from Ryan Brooks. The junior guard scored 12 important points for the Owls as he continued to add to his reputation of being Temple’s most clutch shooter. His three-pointer with 11:36 left in the game stopped a mini-run by the Bonnies and extended Temple’s lead to double digits at 51-40.

Brooks also took a charge from Malcom Eleby on a play that looked liked it was going to be an easy layup for the visitors.

“I think the charge take was big, we were fortunate to get that charge call,” said Dunphy. “The biggest shot he made and maybe the biggest shot of the game was they were hanging at eight and he stepped  up right in front of our bench and hit a big, big three to bump it out to eleven. He’s been doing that four a couple of years now. I don’t think there is any question that he is our best clutch performer.”

The ever-persistent Bonnies were able to cut the Owls’ lead to seven midway through the second half thanks to an extended  14-3 run. Their run fell apart after the team was whistled for two technical fouls in the span on two minutes – one on Jonathan Hall and the other on coach Mark Schmidt.

For the game the Bonnies committed 27 personal fouls to Temple’s 14 and saw three of their starts foul out. Maurice Thomas, Andrew Nicholson and Hall all saw their days cut short thanks to too many fouls.

Temple’s 18 made free-throws nearly doubled the total amount of foul shots that Saint Bonaventure took (10).

Nicholson, the Bonnies freshman phenom, played an especially disappointing game. The 6-9 forward out of Canada scored just 6 points, 7 under his season average, in only 15 minutes.

The freshman also came into the game ranked fifth nationally and second in the A-10 with an average of 3.1 blocks per game. He did collect any on Sunday.

Chris Matthews and Eleby were the leading scorers for Saint Bonaventure with 15 and 14 points respectively.

Eleby, a Philadelphia native and Franklin Learning Center product, also led the Bonnies with six assists and six steals.

Dunphy was clearly impressed with the way Saint Bonaventure, a team that has been down for several years, played.

“Saint Bonaventure has a plan,” said Dunphy. “How about how scary they are going to be in a couple of years? They have a lot of really good young players. [Mark Schmidt] has built a nice program. They’re going to get better and they may make some great noise in the Atlantic 10 tournament as well.”

Temple now owns a 49-6 all-time record against the Bonnies, including a perfect 25-0 in Philadelphia.

Saint Bonaventure will host Saint Louis on Wednesday night and the Owls will be visited by La Salle on Thursday night.

POST GAME AUDIO: (right click and save as.. if you have trouble opening)
Dionte Christmas and Lavoy Allen post game audio
Fran Dunphy Post Game Press Conference