Long Beach State University Athletics
49ers Fall At Temple
12/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
49ers Fall At Temple
Head To Baltimore To Face UMBC On Sunday
December 2, 2006
| MEN'S BASKETBALL | 1 | 2 | FINAL | RECORDS |
| Long Beach State | 13 | 36 | 49 | 2-4 |
| Temple | 43 | 31 | 74 | 2-2 |
| Leading Scorers: LBSU: Sterling Byrd, 12; Temple: Dionte Christmas, 20 Leading Rebounders: LBSU: Sterling Byrd, 7; Temple: Sergio Olmos, 11 | ||||
| BOX SCORE | ||||
PHILADELPHIA, PA-- Dionte Christmas scored 20 points to lead Temple (2-2) to a 74-49 win over Long Beach State (2-4) on Saturday afternoon at the Liacouras Center on the Temple campus. Sterling Byrd led the 49ers with 12 points, the lone 49er in double digits.
Long Beach began the game by scoring the first five points in the opening minute of the contest, but from then on it was all Temple. The Owls scored 12 consecutive points to take a 12-5 lead at 15:45 and eventually went on 26-2 run to take control of the game 26-7 with 9:53. Christmas had 13 first half points for the Owls who shot .486 (17-35) from the field and .429 (6-14) from three-point range. Long Beach was just 6-30 (.200) from the field and 1-12 (.083) from three-point range. The Owls also had 27 first half rebounds and force nine LBSU turnovers.
"You have to be ready to perform on the road," said 49er Head Coach Larry Reynolds. "It's not easy. Things go well the first two possessions of the game for us, but there's still 38 minutes left to play. It's good to play good competition. Hopefully this will make us stronger and better in the long-run. We looked like we ere a tired team today. We didn't have the hop on our step like we normally do."
Center Sergio Olmos set career-high's with his 11 points and 11 rebounds and Dustin Salisberry chipped in with 11 points. The Owls shot .453 (29-64) from the field and 10-24 (.417) from three-point range. Temple committed only 13 turnovers in the game while forcing 16 by the 49ers.
Mark Dawson added seven points while Dominique Ricks, Aaron Nixon and Travon Free each tallied six points. Byrd led LBSU with seven rebounds. Long Beach ended up out-rebounding the Owls 48-45. Free had a season-high six boards to go along with his six points. Long Beach shot a season-low .243 (17-70) overall and were just 4-28 (.143) from three-point range.
49er senior Kejuan Johnson missed his second consecutive game due his broken nose. He will visit the doctors on Monday to see if he will be available to play next week when the 49ers are home against Pepperdine and Sacramento State.
The 49ers are next in action when they head down the east coast to Maryland to take on Maryland-Baltimore County on Sunday afternoon.
