Scarlet Knights Drop Road Game at Temple 77-54

Wednesday, November 29

Philadelphia, PA

7:00 PM

Rutgers University

Temple

Nov 29 | Men's Basketball

PHILADELPHIA - The Rutgers basketball team ran into a hot shooting Temple team on Wednesday night, falling to the Owls 77-54 at the Liacouras Center.

Temple guards Dionte Christmas and DaShone Kirkendoll combined to hit on 15-of-20 from the field, including 11-of-13 from beyond the three-point arc, to lead the Owls. Christmas scored a career-high 27 points, while Kirkendoll also tallied a career-high with 20 points.

The two teams were evenly matched in the early going, and a pair of jumpers by Rutgers sophomore guard Anthony Farmer tied the score at 12-12 midway through the first half. The Owls, however, outscored the Scarlet Knights 26-11 over the final 9:35 of the half to take a 38-23 edge at the break.

Temple hit on 27-of-49 (55%) from the floor, including 11-of-17 (63%) from three point range while earning its first victory of the season after two losses.

Sophomore forward JR Inman led Rutgers with 12 points, and narrowly missed a double-double as hauled in nine rebounds. Inman has scored in double digits in every game this season. Farmer and senior forward Adrian Hill each added 11 points. The hard-luck Scarlet Knights shot 33% (19-of-57) from the floor.

'We knew going into this year that we would struggle offensively. Tonight we got some wide-open shot and they didn't go down,' said first-year head coach Fred Hill. 'We're going to continue to work hard and stay positive. We're going to keep coming out, work hard, and continue to get better.'

The Scarlet Knights return to action on Saturday at 4 p.m., when they host Big 12 opponent Nebraska at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.