After two close calls at home to North Texas and East Carolina, the No. 18 Memphis Tigers (13-4, 3-1) suffered their first American Athletic Conference (AAC) defeat of the season against Temple (11-6, 3-1) Thursday night.
The Tigers cut a 15-point deficit to 3, but the Owls prevailed, resulting in an all-too-familiar conference court-storming against Memphis.
Here's how it happened:
Rebounding
Temple nearly doubled up the Tigers on the boards 49-25, including 22 offensive rebounds.
In a sequence that epitomized the game for Memphis, the Tigers forced three consecutive Temple misses, but the Owls grabbed four offensive rebounds and hit a three-pointer to push their lead back to 6.
Haggerty by Half
PJ Haggerty, who finished with 21 points to lead Memphis, entered halftime with 2 points, 2 rebounds, and a -9 +/-.
Temple denied Haggerty the ball continuously in the first half and made him a non-factor for the opening 25 minutes of the contest.
Memphis was fortunate to only be down 36-30 at halftime given their lackluster offensive performance.
Temple Role Players
Jamal Mashburn Jr. led the Owls in scoring, but it was the play of Quante Berry and Shane Dezonie that carried Temple to victory.
Berry scored 19 points, including 12 in the second half, and he helped aid the Temple attack when Memphis made their push.
Dezonie, listed at 6'4, scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
Big Picture
Prior to tip-off, Temple represented the last Quadrant 2 game Memphis had on their schedule. With the win, the Owls will almost assuredly jump in the NET rankings, and there is a decent chance they remain a Quad 2 defeat for the remainder of the season.
The only thing that this loss killed for Memphis is there chances at a top-4 seed in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers will likely need to run the table to have any chance of this benchmark.
More concerning than the blow to the resume, however, is the patterns of last year emerging once again. This marked the third consecutive game where Memphis found themselves in a dogfight with an inferior team.
This year is not last year. All is not lost. But if Memphis wants to avoid the 7-10 seed range come March, slip-ups like this need to be few and far between.
Up Next: Memphis travels to North Carolina to take on the Charlotte 49ers Sunday at 3 p.m. CT.
