December 13, 2008 by John Lamb | A10CollegeHoops

PHILADELPHIA – The nation has witnessed on multiple occasions this season what Davidson’s Stephen Curry can do when he gets hot. Today they were introduced to Temple’s Dionte Christmas.

He scored 35 points, 30 of them coming in the second half, to lead the Temple Owls (5-3) to an 88-72 upset victory over #8/#8 Tennessee (6-2) in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon.

“When you’re hot, you’re hot,” said Christmas, evoking a laugh from the assembled press. “In the second half the basket looked like the ocean to me. It was wide open, man, every shot I took it was going in.”

The Owls first nine points of the second half came courtesy of Christmas, who pushed their lead to 12 with 16:38 remaining. Overall, he connected on 6-of-7 three-point attempts in the second half.

“Honestly I didn’t think I would get as good looks as I got today,” conceded Christmas. “This morning we went over a lot of Tennessee things and [Coach Dunphy] said I would get a lot of open shots because of the way that they play.”

“When I came off of screens those guys had their hands down and they kind of backed up off me a bit.”

Christmas heroics overshadowed the most complete game of Sergio Olmos’ career. The 7-0 center scored a career high 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting and sank seven of his eight free throws. He also added seven rebounds, five blocks and three assists.

Olmos was forced to play 39 minutes as forwards Lavoy Allen and Michael Eric both found themselves in foul trouble the entire game. Allen had six points, four rebounds, including three on the offensive glass, and three assists. Eric added one point and one rebound in 12 minutes.

Still, it was Olmos who proved to be a matchup problem on both ends of the court for Bruce Pearl’s Volunteers. When they keyed in on him in the post the 7-foot Spaniard adjusted and found himself wide open several times at the top of the key to drain the 18-footer that has now become a legitimate part of his game.

Quite a surprise considering how Olmos had struggled for much of his Temple career.

“Serg is a great guy, he has worked hard and I am proud of him,” said Dunphy, who has been known over the years to poke fun at Olmos during press conferences. “He has worked hard and is a great human being.”

While Olmos and Christmas shared the limelight, junior guard Ryan Brooks quietly put together a very impressive game. He scored 16 points and led the Owls in rebounding with 10. With forwards Lavoy Allen and Michael Eric in foul trouble for most of the game.

The Volunteers cut the lead to four with 11:16 remaining in the game thanks to a pair of Brian Williams free-throws. A technical foul was called on Pearl at the 10:40 mark. It was Christmas time in the Liacouras Center after that has he hit back-to-back-to-back three-pointers to push the Owls’ lead to 15.

“[Christmas] played great,” said Pearl. “There were 20 NBA scouts in here today and they obviously got a real show on what a big-time NBA 2-guard can do when he gets going.”

The announced crowd of 8,068 had a lot to cheer about as Temple led by as much as 23 in the second half. The normally sedate Liacouras Center crowd was rocking for much of the second half the boisterous student section alternated between “Merry Christmas!” and “Over-rated!” chants.

“There was something special going on,” said Dunphy. “The crowd was great and the students were great.”

Point guards Semaj Inge and Luis Guzman scored five and four points respectively. Inge had some committed three careless turnovers early in the game but responded with four assist and two blocks. Reserve guard Ramone Moore added two points and two boards off the bench.

Temple got help from every player as all eight Owls scored at least one point.

The Owls held a 34-25 advantage at the break due largely to the fact that they were shooting 51.9 percent from the floor. Tennessee struggled in that department, shooting only 27.3 percent from the floor including a staggering 3-of-17 from three-point-range.

Christmas again faced heavy defensive attention for the third straight game. He scored five points in the first half but only played 12 minutes due to foul trouble. Brooks stepped into the scorer’s role admirably as he had nine for the half.

Olmos made his presence known in the first half, playing all 20 minutes for the first time in his career. He finished the half with nine points, five rebounds, three blocks and two assists. He also shot 3-of-4 from the foul line.

Where did that stellar play come from?

“I don’t know,” said Olmos. “It just felt good, we worked really hard this week preparing and we were just really focused on this game.”

Temple scored the first eight points of the game and forced Pearl to take a timeout just 1:46 into the game.

The Owls got out to a 13-2 lead at the 15:34 mark before the Volunteers went on a 13-2 run to tie the game at 15.

It was Brooks who scored a three-pointer with 10:49 left in the first half that broke the 15-all tie and put the Owls ahead for good.

“[Brooks] stepped up and made a huge three that bump us back out there,” said Dunphy. “While he may not be our best shooter overall in terms of numbers, he is certainly our most clutch shooter.”

“When you need a basket he is a good guy to go to.”

The Temple defense was able to limit Tennessee to 23.1 percent three-point shooting and 36.5 percent overall. Tennessee was not able to use its patented full court press as the Owls were able to beat it early and often for some easy baskets.

Tyler Smith led the Volunteers in scoring with 17 points. Bobby Maze added 15, with 12 of those points coming in the second half.

The Owls are off until next Saturday when they travel to Kansas to play the Jayhawks. They will then stay on the road, traveling to play Long Beach State two days later.

Dunphy said he would let his players enjoy the win for a day or two and then they will get back to work to prepare for the Jayhawks, who lost to UMass 61-60 today.

POSTGAME AUDIO:
Dionte Christmas and Sergio Olmos talk about the game

Fran Dunphy Post Game Press Conference

Bruce Pearl Post Game Press Conference

John Lamb can be reached at johnlamb@a10collegehoops.com