Christmas Scores 20 as Temple Upsets Xavier

Dionte Christmas scored 20 points for defending champion Temple, and helped hold Xavier to a season low in points, in a 55-53 victory in the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament.

"Christmas played the Grinch, stealing the tournament from Xavier," George Vogel reported in the Cincinatti News. Christmas made every big shot his team needed down the stretch.

Christmas scored 10 of his game high 20 points in the final 6:16 of the game. He hit two late three-pointers, and a free throw with seven seconds left, to give Temple a four-point lead and put the game out of reach.

"Christmas just keeps on giving for Temple," Rich Hofmann reported in the Philadelphia Daily News.

Temple (21-11) moves on to play in Saturday evening's championship game.

Dionte Christmas, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an American college basketball player. He is the current starting shooting guard for the Owls of Temple University, and projects as a early second-round NBA Draft pick. Christmas is listed as 6 feet 5 inches.

Christmas is on pace to break the 2000 point mark for his career. He would be the fourth player in school history to achieve this milestone.

He is also on pace to break Lynn Greer's Temple record of 305 career three-pointers. Christmas already owns the Temple single-season marks for three pointers made (104) and attempted (282), both records were set during the 2007-08 season.

He also ranks in Temple's all-time top 10 in three-pointers attempted and three-point field goal percentage.

Christmas has ruined the dreams of a lot of bubble teams by leading Temple's upset of Xavier. If Xavier had gone on to win the Atlantic 10 Tourney, chances are they would have been the only team to qualify out of the A-10.

A lot of teams saw their bubble burst by Christmas and Temple. Upsets are part of the beauty of college basketball. Now none of those team will be optimistic when they hear  Christmas is coming.