Recordpub.com - Flashes enter Temple of doom

By David Carducci
Record-Courier staff writer
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Kent State closed out a disappointing non-conference start to the 2008-09 season with an ugly 73-58 loss at Temple University on Monday.
The sloppy effort featured 32 percent shooting on poor shot selection and a series of missed free throws and careless turnovers down the stretch. At 7-7 on the year, the Golden Flashes now head to Sunday's Mid-American Conference opener at Ohio University with a sour taste in their mouthes.
"It was one of those nights," said KSU head coach Geno Ford. "We actually hustled our butts off. We had 21 offensive rebounds and out-rebounded them 40-39, but then we just couldn't make a shot. We couldn't make a thing."
Temple star Dionte Christmas didn't have that same problem.
After spending the first 17 minutes deferring to teammates like 6-foot-9 center Craig Williams, who scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half, Christmas decided to take over. He caught fire in the final three minutes of the first half, scoring his first eight points, while helping the Owls to a 34-25 at the break.
Christmas' first basket - a long 3-pointer with 2:58 to play - put Temple (6-6) ahead 27-23. One minute later, his second 3 gave the Owls their nine-point edge.
Christmas continued the red-hot shooting in the second half to finish with a game-high 26 points.
"Kent State did a good job (in the first half) on defense, but when teams are focusing on me, I try to get my teammates involved," Christmas said over the Temple radio network after the game. "The slow start kind of opened me up, because the defense started sagging off of me a little bit. The last few games I've been getting hot in the second half, and that kind of happened again."
Tyree Evans threatened to ignite his own little fire late for Kent State, hitting two long 3-pointers of his own on back-to-back possessions with just inside 10 minutes to play. The second of which - a quick trigger from three feet behind the top of the arc - pulled the Flashes to within seven points, 52-45, at the second half's 9:11 mark.
Unfortunately, KSU couldn't sustain the momentum, as Chris Singletary, Brandon Parks and Al Fisher combined to miss four straight free throws.
"That really hurt us," said Ford. "We could have cut it to four or five points."
Instead, Christmas drilled another 3-pointer from the right corner and split the middle of the Flashes' defense on a driving layup, helping Temple kick its lead right back out to double digits. As the Flashes continued their poor shooting from the field and the foul line, the Owls continued to extend their lead.
After making seven of their first eight free throws, the Flashes closed by going just 5-for-13 from the line in the final 10 minutes.
Evans led KSU with 17 points, but made just 6 of his 17 shots. Fisher had an even bigger struggle, going just 3-for-13 from the field in scoring 13 points. Singletary and Parks contributed 11 and eight points, respectively.
As a team, the Flashes shot just 21-for-64 from the field (32.8 percent). The ice-cold shooting hit midway through the first half when KSU missed 12 straight shots to watch its early 13-10 lead slip away.

David Carducci can be reached at dcarducci@recordpub.com