Jan. 28, 2007
PHILADELPHIA - Temple University sophomore guard Dionte Christmas has been named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week for the second straight week and third of the season. He also picked up his second Big 5 Player of the Week citation. The Philadelphia native (Philadelphia Lutheran Christian Academy) shares the A-10 honor with Saint Louis sophomore guard Kevin Lisch for the week ending January 27.
Christmas, who averaged 32 points in two games during the week, was injured in the final minute of Saturday night's loss at Duquesne and is questionable for the team's game at Richmond on January 31. The 6-5 two-guard suffered a laceration of the webbing between his third and fourth fingers of his left hand. He received 17 stitches to close the wound and will be evaluated Monday by Temple team physician Dr. Ray Moyer.
Christmas started the week by tallying a career-high 34 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field (5-7 3PT, 7-7 FTs) in the Owls' 76-74 loss at Penn. Christmas, who matched his career-high with eight rebounds in the contest, drained a go-ahead jumper from the right corner with eight seconds to play. Temple would lose the contest on three free throws by Penn's Mark Zoller with 1.4 seconds to play.
In Temple's other game, Christmas scored a game-high 30 points on nine-of-17 shooting (4-10 3PT, 8-11 FTs) at Duquesne. He became the first Temple player since Terence Stansbury (1983) to score 30-or-more points in three straight games. He also grabbed three rebounds, made a career-high five steals and matched his career-best in assists with five. For the week, Christmas averaged 32.0 points, 5.5 rebounds while hitting 20-of-32 from the field (.625), nine-of-17 from three-point range (.529) and 15-of-18 from the line (.833).
Christmas continues to lead the A-10 in scoring with a 21.4 scoring average, 20-point games (14) and 30-point games (3). He also ranks second in the conference in free throw percentage (.885), third in three-pointers made (2.95 pg.), fifth in field goal percentage (.496), sixth in three-point percentage (.441) and sixth in steals (1.58).
Temple (7-12, 1-5) next travels to Richmond for a Wednesday night game (7:30 p.m./1210 AM).
