AAC Championship, Semi Finals Recap: Temple 74- FAU 73
Temple is slowly becoming the darlings of College Basketball, as they knocked off FAU 74-73 in the Semi Finals of the AAC tournament, making it 4 post-season wins in a row, and moving one game away from the NCAA Tournament. Nothing was easy about this win, as the Philly Owls fought back from an abysmal early shooting performance and 5-point halftime deficit, to stun The Beach Boys in the second half with a lights out shooting performance, and 21 points from Hysier Miller.
Miller scored 18 of those 21 in the second half, and when Temple found their shooting stroke at the break, FAU was unable to find theirs. The Florida Owls were 1 for 8 at the break and 3 for 17 overall from 3 and it left FAU unable to match the fire power from Temple and made a comeback effort too little too late. After the game, Temple Coach Adam Fisher explained how his team was able to force FAU to play into their brand of defensive basketball.
“On the defensive end, our activity was great and, again, our brand of perfect is playing together. We’re not always doing the right stuff all the time. We mess up some assignments, but we do it hard, we do it together, and we communicate, and that’s our brand of basketball,” Coach Fisher said.
Temple started off guns blazing, hitting back-to-back triples to jump out to an early 6-2 lead. Jalen Gaffney hit one of his own, right in front of the Temple Bench to make it 6-5 with 17:23 to play, and the early scoring from both sides took a bit of a halt from there.
The next 2 minutes featured 0 points from either side, and Temple checked in 2 for their first 8 from the field, while FAU was 2 of 5 with 2 turnovers at the first media break with 15:20 to play.
A closely contested battle of the Owls was on-tap early, as the next couple of minutes only saw a few made shots from both sets of Owls. FAU went on a mini 6-3 run heading into the 12-minute media break and saw Rosado get active down-low, Brenen Lorient got to the free throw line, and following a Nick Boyd signature contested layup, FAU was holding a slim 11-9 advantage with 11:23 to play.
Temple really got on a cold streak following that, as over the next 4 minutes FAU capitalized and went on a 10-0 run. Jalen Gaffney had 7 early points and was all over the court, he scored in transition off a turnover and FAU had their biggest lead of the game, 21-9 with 7:42 to play in the first half.
In what was a slow-moving half, the FAU lead held at double digits for a few minutes, but Temple was able to get back-to-back triples from Hysier Miller and Jordan Riley and the FAU lead was cut to 6, 26-20, with 3:42 to play.
The lead hovered around 6-8 over the final few minutes of the first half for FAU, and following a late pair of Johnell Davis free throws, FAU took a 33-25 lead into the locker room. Temple was able to give a strong message in the locker room at halftime and make the needed adjustments and Coach Fisher mentioned that for his team, it’s all about staying together.
“We were down eight and they got two free throws there at the end. That hurt, down eight. And it’s about staying together. Hey, we’re going to make some adjustments and we talked about those adjustments at halftime. It’s easy to say it, it’s really hard to go execute, and these guys did it, and that’s why I’m so proud of them. We were, I thought, elite communicators today,” Coach Fisher said,
FAU was getting a team effort with 7 players in the scoring column and were winning the rebounding battle 21-14 at the break. The offense was one dimensional however, as the Owls were only 1 of 8 from deep and it kept Temple in the game, as the Philly Owls were 4/11 from deep in the first half.
Temple started the second half on fire from deep as their first 5 shots all came from beyond the arc to start the half, and the momentum seriously started to shift on the 5th one. Matteo Piccareli was fouled on a triple, he converted, and it was ruled a flagrant foul on Goldin. When it was all said and done, Picarelli had 5 points on that possession, Jordan Riley converted on a layup after the technical free throws and Temple was within 1, 42-41, with 16:25 to play.
That was a crucial 7-0 swing according to FAU coach Dusty May, however in his mind that wasn’t the deciding factor in this game.
“It was obviously crucial at that point in the game to have seven points in one possession, and not only that, but it gives them momentum. But when we don’t shoot well and then our defense is as — I won’t say soft, but it needed to be much more physical, and we give up the percentage we did from three, it’s not a recipe for success,” Coach May said
A little more than 3 minutes later, the temple surge paid off and thanks to 3 straight points from Jordan Riley the Owls turned a 5-point halftime deficit into a 1-point lead less than 7 minutes into the half.
The squads traded a one possession lead over the next couple minutes but with 9:39 to play, Temple began to pull away. Sam Hoffman hit a triple that put them up 55-50 and for the first time all game the Philly Owls had some separation and momentum. That lead got as large as 8 with 7:51 to play before FAU made a late push to try to comeback.
FAU was able to cut it to 4 a couple of times over the next few minutes, Davis hit a triple which made it 64-60 with 4:33 to play. That was a part of a 7-0 overall run, which tied up the game at 64 a piece on a Nelly layup, and it seemed like FAU was in the midst of making one of their signature runs.
Temple jolted the lead back up to 6 with 45 seconds left and things were looking grim for The Beach Boys until they got a glimmer of hope down the stretch. Boyd hit a jumper, Nelly was fouled on a triple and hit all 3 free throws, which brought the deficit back to one with 29 seconds left, and it gave FAU the opportunity to play the foul game down the stretch.
FAU was able to get a few misses from Shane Dezonie and following a missed pair of free throws with 7 seconds left, Johnell Davis got the rebound and it set up a last play opportunity. Following the rebound, he took it the length of the court getting all the way to the rim, before passing it to Brenen Lorient who was unable to get a shot up, and Temple finished off their Owl foes, winning 74-73.
After the game FAU coach Dusty May explained how that last play developed, mentioning that even though Vlad was off the court, a timeout would have stopped Johnell’s momentum.
“It was a lot like at UAB, where the plan is to call a timeout and then you see Nelly find a crease, and he’s so good getting to the rim, in my mind, I thought they would lead B-Lo and he would get a tip-in. Obviously, in hindsight, I wish Vlad would have been in the game, but I wish we had a lot of possessions back,” Coach May said.
FAU will have a bit of uneasiness as they await the NCAA selection committee’s bracket reveal show at 5:30 on Sunday, however Coach May believes his team is one of the 68 who will be able to compete for a championship.
“There’s, 360-some teams now. 68 get in. So, we’re confident that we’re going to be one of those teams that have a chance to compete for the biggest championship in our game, in our sport and in college basketball,” Coach May said.
Temple will take on UAB in the AAC finals at 3:15 EST, and the winner will head to the NCAA tournament.