RECAP: Temple hands No. 18 Memphis first conference loss

The Tigers’ sluggish ways got the better of them in Philadelphia.

No. 18 Memphis (13-4, 3-1 AAC) suffered its first American Athletic Conference (AAC) loss at Temple 88-81 Thursday night. The Owls ranked No. 123 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) before tipoff, handing Memphis a Quad 2 defeat. Penny Hardaway’s club isn’t expected to play another Quad 2 game until March 2 at UAB, and that’s if the Blazers can maintain a top-135 NET ranking.

Next up for Memphis is another road tilt at Charlotte on Sunday (2 p.m., ESPN2).

The Tigers shot 45% overall and 29% on 3-pointers. They also recorded 15 forced turnovers, 14 assists, 10 steals, 10 offensive rebounds and 4 blocks. Memphis lost despite scoring more points in the paint (40-32), more fastbreak points (16-7) and more points off turnovers (14-11) than Temple.

Adam Fisher’s team (11-6, 3-1 AAC) shot 47% from the field and 41% from beyond the arc. It also outrebounded Memphis 49-25 while racking up 22 offensive boards, 15 assists, 10 forced turnovers and 4 steals. Temple’s bench outscored Memphis’ 33-19 as the Owls led the Tigers for 32 minutes and 40 seconds.

Here are some takeaways from Memphis’ first hiccup since last month.

Temple dominates the glass

Temple simply wanted it more than Memphis to start the game.

The Owls outrebounded the Tigers 22-12 in the first half. Nine of Temple’s boards came on the offensive glass. None of Memphis’ three big men—Dain Dainja, Moussa Cisse and Nick Jourdain—played more than 13 of 20 minutes throughout the opening period.

Jamal Mashburn Jr. led the Owls with 11 first-half points and 2 offensive rebounds. Shane Dezonie grabbed a team-high 3 offensive boards and drilled two 3-pointers in the first half. The Owls led Memphis 36-30 at halftime. The main separator—6 second-chance points for the home team.

Temple controlled the boards 27-13 in the second half too. That includes 13 offensive rebounds compared to 6 for Memphis.

Jourdain struggles in return to Philly

The 6-foot-7 forward scored 5 of Memphis’ first 7 points, but he didn’t have too much fun after that.

Jourdain struggled mightily on the defensive end, and finished the game with just 3 rebounds. He played 21 minutes and fouled out with just over a minute left to play.

He recorded a -9 plus-minus score in Thursday’s game.

PJ Haggerty’s missed free throws loom large

Temple went up by as many as 15 points with 14:49 on the clock, but Memphis climbed back into things down the stretch—even though it didn’t perform any better on the glass.

The Tigers never led or tied the game in the second half, but they did cut their deficit down to one possession five times in the final seven minutes. Haggerty—the nation’s No. 3 scorer and an 83.3% free-throw shooter—had a chance to trim Temple’s lead down to 2 points with 2:26 to go. All he had to do was make two shots from the charity stripe.

Both clamped straight off the rim, though, and Temple’s Zion Stanford took advantage with a slam on the other end. Haggerty earned two more foul shots right after, but he only hit one of them. Memphis never got that close again in the final two minutes, as the Owls upped their advantage back to 9 points with 20 seconds left.

Mashburn finished with 21 points, 5 rebounds (3 offensive), 4 steals and a steal. Quante Berry totaled 19 points, 3 assists and 3 rebounds on 8-for-12 shooting. Dezonie concluded his evening with 15 points and 13 rebounds, including 5 offensive boards in the second half. Steve Settle III (11) and Zion Stanford (10) also scored double-figure points for Temple.

Haggerty matched Mashburn with 21 points to go with 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals on 6-for-13 shooting. He also converted 8 of his first 9 free-throw attempts, but finished the contest at 9-of-13 from the line. Tyrese Hunter had 16 points, 6 assists and 2 steals, while Dain Dainja compiled 14 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks.