And We're Off!

To start their campaign, the Temple Owls (21-13 last year) would take on the East Tennessee State University Buccanneers. This was Round One of the Charleston Classic, as mentioned before, which features several talented young basketball squads:

- College of Charleston

- Clemson

- East Tennessee State

- Hofstra

- TCU

- Temple

- SIU Edwardsville

- Western Michigan

This matchup, tonight, featured a battle of the East- Atlantic 10 vs. Atlantic Sun. It

would be an interesting and thrilling game through the mid-hours of the day.

The Owls' came out rusty, but shortly after picked up the tempo when Guards Dionte Christmas (pictured right) and Ryan Brooks caught fire. Contributions also game at the top of the key from Semaj Inge, Ramone Moore, and Lou Guzman. Down low, Temple was without it's 7'0 Center Sergio Olmos from Valencia, Spain- Olmos missed this game due to a foot injury sustained one day prior to the game. PF Lavoy Allen and PF/C Michael Eric filled in the gaps, and perfomed excellent though in place of Sergio Olmos (17 points for Allen).

Speaking of Michael Eric, there were several Redshirted freshman who had the change to show their talents against an overmatched ESTU team: Ramone Moore, Craig Williams, Scootie

Randall, and Michael Eric all had their opportunities to flash their talent as the Owls were able to pull away by 10, 20 points.

Overall, tonight's 79-65 victory was a decent showing, but if the Owls think that can compete with those teams of Tennessee and Kansas, they're going to have to play their cards right as the season progresses.

Lead scorer for Temple was Senior Guard Dionte Christmas with 26 points.

Temple starts the year off with a record of 1-0, as they head into a matchup against College of Charleston tomorrow at 3:00.

Go Owls!

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