March 10, 2008
PHILADELPHIA -
Temple University junior guard Dionte Christmas has been named the espn.com National Player of the Week for the week ending March 8. It is the third weekly honor he received for his play last week, joining his Atlantic 10 and Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Week honors.
Christmas, who was named NABC second team all-district on March 4, averaged 22 points, 5.3 rebounds in leading the Owls to three wins and second place in the Conference. The 6-5 guard started the week by scoring 10 points in a 57-56 win over Saint Joseph's at The Palestra (Mar. 3). He followed that with a career-high and A-10 season best 37 points in a 90-85 win over Duquesne. The Philadelphia native closed the week in style by setting a new school single season record for three-pointers made (96) in a 19-point effort at La Salle (85-66, Mar. 8).
Christmas, who joined Mark Macon and Lynn Greer as the only Temple players to score 600 points in consecutive seasons, is tied with UMass' Gary Forbes for the A-10 scoring lead with a 20.3 average. He also ranks among the conference leaders in three-pointers made (3rd, 3.20 pg.), free throw percentage (10th, .786) and field goal percentage (11th, .446).
Christmas has scored 20 or more points 16 times and 30 or more points three times. He also has led the Owls in scoring in 21 games, and has tallied double figures in every contest.
Temple (18-12, 11-5) opens play in the A-10 Tournament on Thursday, March 13. The second-seed Owls will take on the winner of #7-seed La Salle (14-16, 8-8) and #10-seed Duquesne (17-12, 7-9) at 6:30 p.m.
