Per usual, SMu got off to a slow start against Temple in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Mustangs went on an 8-2 run to enter halftime only trailing by two and rallied in the second half to defeat the Owls 69-56.
“It’s pretty hard to beat a team three times,” SMU head coach Larry Brown said. “Especially a quality team with an unbelievable coach. Again, we kind of got off to a bad start. We got in real foul trouble the first half, and my assistants got on me about playing a zone. You know, just to protect some of our players. The zone kind of was pretty effective, I think they only scored one field goal when we went zone late. But to beat a Temple team, a quality program like that three times, it really means a lot to our program.”
Markus Kennedy led all scorers with 17 points and nine rebounds.
“Well, we didn’t have him all season,” Brown said. “This team has been through an awful lot, and to Markus to come back and have the attitude he’s had, it’s been so important. And then to be humble enough to not start, come off the bench and accept that role, not a lot of kids with his ability would. He’s accepted that. But I started him the second half, he got in foul trouble, didn’t play much the first half and he did great. But he’s a quality, quality player and a really great kid.”
SMU also got contributions from Yanick Moreira and Cannen Cunningham. Moreira finished with 11 points and eightrebounds, while Cunningham finished with 11 points and three boards.
But one of the most important contributors was Sterling Brown.
“I thought Sterling kept us in the game,” Brown said. “We got behind, he made some unbelievable hustle plays, and then hit a huge 3 and it seemed like after he made that 3, we kind of got control a little bit.”
Brown finished with 10 points and eight rebounds- but te timing of his contributions were key.
“We were just getting stops and executing,” Sterling said. “We talked about that at halftime, we wanted to come out and execute and do what Coach said.”
Ben Emelogu’s defensive efforts on Will Cummings was phenomenal. On three straight possessions, SMU managed to neutralize the Owl’s star guard.
The Owls were led by Quenton Decosey who had 14 points and five rebounds.
In the second half, SMU went on a 14-2 run to build an 11 point lead. During that run, Moore hit a three pointer, a lay up, and found a streaking Ryan Manuel for an alley oop.
“We come out with the same mindset,” Brown said. “Obviously I’m not doing real good job in the locker room prior to games if — I didn’t realize it was five games in a row, but it has been a pattern. We’ve been down double digits against Temple the two previous times. But I think we pay attention to detail. You know, we talk so much before the game about getting the ball inside. I think the second half we got it in so deep and got to the free throw line we didn’t get to the first half, I think that was really effective. And then second half we just dominated the board in every game we’ve played against them.”
SMU will advance to the finals and battle for the conference tournament championship against sixth seeded UCONN.
