• Basketball
  • Temple Basketball Sends SMU Packing with the Owls Beating the Mustangs, 64-57

Temple Basketball Sends SMU Packing with the Owls Beating the Mustangs, 64-57

Details
Basketball

Tai Strickland scored a career-high 27 points to lead Temple to a 64-57 come-from-behind win over American Athletic Conference leader SMU Wednesday night at the Liacouras Center.

Strickland scored 21 of his points in the second half, including 18 in the final six minutes. It was his layup with 53 seconds that put Temple, 53-51, then sealed it with eight-of-eight free throw shooting. He finished 8-of-14 from the field and a career-high 11-of-14 from the line.

The undermanned Owls were again playing without their top two scorers, Damian Dunn (ankle) and Jeremiah Williams (shoulder), for the second straight game while the AAC's leading scorer, Kendric Davis (ankle), was not available for the Mustangs.

Temple improves to 14-9 overall and 7-5 in the AAC while SMU falls to 18-6, 9-3.

First Half
• Temple made two of its first three shots to take a 4-0 lead, but it would be short-lived as the Mustangs scored seven straight en route to 19-3 run to open up a 19-7 advantage by the midway point of the half.
• The Owls answered with a 15-3 run to forge a 22-all tie with just under five minutes to play on a Jahlil White three-point play.
• SMU than ran off the final six points of the half to take a 28-22 lead into the locker room while the Owls went cold (0-7 fgs) from the field.
• The Mustangs defense held the Owls in check, holding the Cherry and White to 9-of-34 shooting overall (26.5%) and 2-of-14 from long-range (14.3%).

Second Half
• SMU led throughout the second half, building its lead to as many as nine on two occasions, the last 33-24 with 15:33 to play.
• The Owls would not allow the Mustangs to pull too far away and were able to cut the margin down to one, 39-38, on a basket by White with just over seven minutes to play.
• A three-pointer by Emmanuel Bandoumel and a layup by Zhuric Phelps pushed the margin back to six, 44-38, but Temple would not go away.
• The Owls cut it back to a basket on four straight points by Strickland, but SMU then the Weathers' brothers answered with Marcus making a layup and Michael converting a three-point play to bring it back to seven, 49-42.
• Temple quickly cut it back to three on baskets, 49-46, by Hicks and Strickland and would tie the contest with 1:30 to play on a three-point play by Sage Tolbert III.
• After a defensive stop, Strickland drove the lane for a contested layup to give Temple its first lead, 53-51, since the first three minutes of the game.
• Strickland then made four consecutive free throws to give the Owls a 57-51 lead. That was part of 11-of-12 shooting from the line to seal the victory.

Statistically Speaking
• White was the only other Owl to reach double figures with 11 points while Nick Jourdain (9 pts) tied his career-high with 12 rebounds.
• Hicks also tied his career high with nine rebounds while Tolbert (8pts) had one of his most productive games.
• Michael (22 pts, 7 rebs) and Marcus (15 pts, 10 rebs) led SMU.
• Temple committed just six turnovers for the game.

Next Up
• Temple travels to Cincinnati for a Sunday afternoon game (2 p.m./ESPN2/1210 AM WPHT) in the first of two road games.