Cincinnati routs Temple, 84-54, in AAC tournament quarterfinals

FORT WORTH, Texas – For the second-straight year, Temple was unable to capitalize on a first-round bye in the American Athletic Conference Basketball Championship.

The fifth-seeded Owls, after grabbing an early 10-point lead, got outclassed the rest of the way and lost 84-54 to Cincinnati Friday afternoon at Dickies Arena to bring their disappointing season to an end.

In what was dubbed a “tournament-or-bust” season for the Owls, Temple instead finished with a worse record at 16-16 than last season (17-12) and didn’t sniff the NIT.

Cincinnati, meanwhile, advanced to face top-seeded Houston, the nation’s No. 1 team, in Saturday’s semifinal round.

“I want to continue to play,” said Temple head coach Aaron McKie. “Wanted to play in March and all of those different things. We had every opportunity during the course of the year to do something, and we didn’t take advantage of it. I've been saying this to the guys throughout the season, ‘Don't squander opportunities. And it's just not in basketball, it’s in life.’

“We had another opportunity today to extend the season, and we didn't do so.”

Listen to the postgame press conference with audio from McKie, Zach Hicks and Jahlil White here.

Key takeaways

Temple suffered the residual effects of its 2022 recruiting class Friday.

Cincinnati wing and South Jersey native Dan Skillings Jr., a former Temple target from right down Broad Street at Roman Catholic High School, chose the Bearcats over the Owls prior to the start of his senior high school season in 2021.

In Friday’s rubber match with the Owls, Skillings finished with 20 points off the bench on 8 of 14 shooting to help end Temple’s season.

“It was the best game he’s had as a Bearcat,” said Cincinnati head coach Wes Miller about Skillings. “He ain’t even scratching the surface of what he can be yet.”

Khalif Battle, for whom Skillings would have come off the bench, was expected to be part of a trio including fellow redshirt-sophomore guard Damian Dunn and sophomore transfer center Jamille Reynolds that carried Temple to NCAA Tournament hopes back in November.

Fast forward to March, and Battle is no longer with the team, while Reynolds comes off the bench for grad transfer Kur Jongkuch.

Down to two players that can create shots for themselves, the Owls missed Battle and his 17.9 points per game in Friday’s matchup.

“He's a guy that can get 20, 30 every night,” Miller said about Battle. “That’s certainly somebody that makes them much more dynamic offensively. … It certainly is a different prep to defend them without Battle on the floor.”

Inside the numbers

Temple was not able to score against Cincinnati (21-11), shooting 32.8 percent from the field, including 25 percent from three in Friday’s game. The Owls couldn’t get anything easy, as the Bearcats finished with 11 blocks to hold Temple to 20 points in the paint. Center Viktor Lahkin had seven blocks for Cincinnati, tying a conference tournament record.

Reynolds was Temple’s lone bright spot, as he finished with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting. He and sophomore forward Zach Hicks were the only Owls who attempted more than seven shots to shoot more than 44 percent from the field.

The Owls also did a lackluster job of protecting the ball, finishing with nine assists to 15 turnovers, contributing to Temple trailing for 28 minutes and 28 seconds.

Stat leaders

First-team all-AAC forward Landers Nolley II led all scorers with 22, followed by Skillings and guard Mika Adam-Woods’ 20 each. Cincinnati forward Ody Oguama led the game in rebounds with 12, while Adams-Woods and Temple sophomore point guard Hysier Miller tied for the lead in assists with five.

Dunn, Hicks and Reynolds tied for a team-high 12 points, while Dunn and sophomore forward Jahlil White tied for a team-high seven rebounds.

White, however, is now tied to a forgettable stat. According to sports-reference.com, he is one of just six players since the 1992-93 season to have missed at least all 20 of their three-point attempts in a season. In shooting 3-for-11 from the floor Friday, White missed his lone three to finish 0-for-21 from beyond the arc this season.

Momentum shifts

An early 9-0 run by Temple extended the Owls’ lead to 14-6 and forced a Cincinnati timeout with less than 14 minutes remaining in the first half. Hicks made two threes during the run, and sandwiched between them was a three by Miller.

The run reached 11-0 before Skillings ended it with a layup to spark a 9-0 run for Cincinnati.

Cincinnati later followed up with a 7-0 run around the eight-minute mark to take a 25-20 lead and force a Temple timeout. White then missed two free throws that could have stopped the run, as the Bearcats made five-straight field goals.

A 8-0 run around the last media timeout of the first half gave the Bearcats a 33-23 lead. Cincinnati had six blocks to Temple’s one at the time and took advantage of the Owls missing three of their four free throws at that point.

So after grabbing that early 16-6 lead, Temple scored just 11 points in the last 13 minutes of the first half and just 38 points the rest of the way, getting completely overwhelmed in a blowout loss that brought an end to the Owls’ maddening season.

“I think the ball was sticking,” Hicks said. “We weren’t doing what we did coming out to start the game, which was moving. We’ve got to help each other out on the ball, because people on the other side weren’t moving around.”

Looking ahead

Next up for the Owls is the 2023-24 season, the last one on McKie’s contract. Through four years, McKie has yet to win a game in the AAC Tournament at 0-3 (the 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID pandemic) or make at least an NIT appearance.

Excluding Dunn’s unknown status for next season, Temple will have at least two open scholarships with three players leaving the program, and West Catholic High School forward Zion Stanford coming in as a freshman.

What Temple does with its roster and what second-year athletic director Arthur Johnson decides with McKie will be things to keep an eye on.

“No, I don’t work off of that,” McKie said when asked if he was worried about his job security. “I coach and I try to grow these kids. It’s part of the game. One of my coaches used to say to me all the time, ‘Coaches, you get hired. And, at some point, you move on.’ You get fired or whatever the case may be, but I don't lose sleep over that. I want to continue to grow these kids and help this program as best as I can.”