Upstart Owls upset SMU, advance to AAC quarterfinals

FORT WORTH, Texas – Temple came into Thursday night’s American Athletic Conference tournament second-round game having won five of its last seven.

Those five wins, however, came against teams - like the 11th-seeded Owls themselves - hanging out among the bottom five in the league standings.

And even though it entered Thursday having lost four of its last five games, sixth-seeded SMU would present a much tougher challenge for Temple.

For the first 10 minutes Thursday night, the Owls looked a lot like the team that endured a 10-game losing streak earlier this season. Then Temple found another gear, played arguably its best stretch of basketball under first-year head coach Adam Fisher, and went on to outscore the Mustangs by 16 in the second half.

The result? An impressive 75-60 upset win at Dickies Arena that vaulted the Owls to Friday night’s quarterfinal matchup against No. 3 seed Charlotte (9 p.m. ET, ESPNU) and marked the first time the program had won multiple conference tournament games since 2010 when it claimed the Atlantic 10 title in Atlantic City.

“I’m really proud of these guys,” Fisher said. “I think our connectivity and our togetherness has really shown. Our defense really picked up the last couple games, with our activity and our rebounds.

“I thought everybody played a part in it, and we needed everybody. Some nights, certain guys step up, and that’s what our team is about — being together throughout it and doing it for a full 40 (minutes.)”

When Temple (14-19) played at SMU (20-12) in Dallas during the regular season back on Jan. 16 in the midst of that 10-game losing streak, the Mustangs scored the first 15 points of the game while the Owls went nearly six minutes without scoring their first point.

The start to Thursday night’s matchup wasn’t quite as bad, but Temple nonetheless found itself trailing by 10 nearly seven minutes into the game. Then the Owls cut down the deficit from there by responding with an 11-2 run, and a Sam Hofman three and a Hysier Miller bucket represented the last five points of the first half to get Temple within one at 33-32 at halftime.

Miller was the main catalyst of the offense. The 6-foot-1 junior point guard scored 12 of his game-high 21 points in 19 first-half minutes on 5 of 7 shooting.

“I just want to give credit to my teammates,” Miller said. “They played a heck of a game tonight and allowed me to make some plays.”

Temple contained SMU guard and leading scorer Zhuric Phelps, who had just four first-half points, but the Owls had no answer for the Mustang’s second-leading scorer, Chuck Harris. He carried the Mustangs with 10 first-half points on 4 of 6 shooting, but he injured his foot toward the end of the first half. The Butler transfer tried to give it a go after halftime but wasn’t nearly the same player in just four second-half minutes that saw him miss his only shot, a three-point attempt.

“I just didn’t have the same first step,” Harris said.

“There was some uncertainty (as) to whether or not he was going to be able to return,” SMU head coach Rob Lanier said of Harris, “so our rotation changed a little bit. Obviously when you get a guy who's getting 13-14 [points] a game and he’s not there, that can affect what you do.”

Temple carried its momentum out of the locker room and never looked back. After starting 2-for-6 from the field, the Owls knocked the rust off and shot 53.6% (15 of 28) from the floor and 55.6% (5 of 9) from behind the arc. They shot 52% on the night and have shot 40% or better for the fifth time in six games.

While Temple was great on offense, its defense was just as good. SMU shot just 9 of 27 in the second half, including 2 of 10 from three-point range. Forward Steve Settle played perhaps his finest all-around game in a Temple uniform since arriving as a transfer from Howard, blocking a career-high five shots to go with 14 points on 4-for-5 shooting, including 2-for-2 from three.

Shane Dezonie chipped in 12 points and Jahlil White added 10 on a night when the Owls got 30 points from their bench.

Up next

Temple and Charlotte played once during the regular season, with the 49ers taking a 73-70 win at the Liacouras Center back on Feb. 11. The Owls were without an injured Jahlil White in that game and surrendered a game-high 22 points to guard Lu’Cye Patterson, who had 27 points and four steals in Charlotte’s 82-72 win over ECU in the 49ers’ regular-season finale six days ago. As the tournament’s third seed, Charlotte (19-11) earned a double bye in its inaugural American Athletic Conference season to go straight to Friday night’s quarterfinal round.

Postgame press conference

Hear from Adam Fisher, Steve Settle III and Hysier Miller following Thursday's game.