How about that big night for the A 10?
Temple downed No. 8 Tennessee, 88-72, behind 35 points from Dionte Christmas.
And UMass won at No. 25 Kansas 61-60.
Think Xavier can keep up the trend when it faces Duke on Saturday at the Izod Center in Jersey?
The 6-foot-5 Christmas made 6-of-7 3-pointers in the second half for Temple and scored 24 of the Owls’ first 33 points in the first 11:15 of the second half.
“When you’re hot, you’re hot,” Christmas told the Philly Inquirer. “The second half the basket looked like an ocean.”
Said Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl: “Twenty NBA scouts were here and they obviously got a real show of what a big-time NBA two-guard can do when he gets it going.”
Speaking of Temple, guard TJ DiLeo is the son of new 76ers coach Tony DiLeo, who replaces the fired Maurice Cheeks.
At Kansas, former Memphis assistant Derek Kellogg got his first signature win at the helm of the Minutemen.
Kellogg had a front row seat last April when Mario Chalmers hit a 3-pointer that sent the national championship game into OT. In a similar situation, UMass’ Tony Gaffney got a piece of Sherron Collins‘ final shot to hold off the No. 25 Jayhawks. UMass is just 3-6, while KU dropped to 7-2.
“They ran the same play they did in San Antonio,” Kellogg said. “I kind of told my guys what play they would run.”
Elsewhere, Tyreke Evans tallied 20 points but Memphis fell to Georgetown, 79-70 in OT, in Washington.
