Temple Men’s Basketball was on one of its most memorable and improbable runs in the program’s history. The Owls had won their most games ever in the American Athletic Conference Tournament and looked to complete their miracle run with its first AAC championship in the program’s history.
UAB guard Alejandro Vasquez and the rest of the Blazers had other plans. They completely blew Temple out of the water, leading by as many as 26 points and ending the Owls’ unlikely tournament run. Temple guard Hysier Miller made history, earning the record for most points in an AAC Tournament at 96, but his career-high 32 points were not enough.
Temple (16-20, 5-13 AAC) fell to UAB (23-11, 12-6 AAC) 85-69 Sunday in the AAC Championship finale in Fort Worth, Texas. The Blazers had four players score in double-digits, while the Owls had just one.
“Really proud of this group,” said Temple head coach Adam Fisher. “We talk all the time about being team 128. And everything we do, we do together. We win together, we lose together, but together is the key word. While this one hurts, we’ve got to have the expectation that in this program, you play meaningful games in March.”
Vazquez had the game of his life against the Owls. He didn’t even check into UAB’s game against Wichita State on March 15, but Vasquez set a career-high in points with 29 against the Owls and looked flat-out unguardable. Guard Eric Gaines and forwards Christian Coleman and Yaxel Lendeborg also scored in double-digits, with 15, 15 and 14, respectively.
The rest of UAB’s offense also shot uncharacteristically well, finishing at 49 percent from the field. The Blazers came into the matchup with the lowest number of threes taken per game in the AAC but thrived from beyond the arc Sunday, shooting 8-19 from deep.
The Blazers set the tone early thanks to Vazquez, as he scored 16 of the Blazers’ first 20 points. Vazquez went perfect on all five of his shots from three-point range in the opening half and scored 21 of UAB’s 43 first-half points.
“The first half, I thought they jumped on us,” Fisher said. “Vasquez was great. He hit some tough shots. We were trying to keep the ball out of his hands, and he just kept making plays.”
Temple continued its early offensive struggles as Miller was the only real scoring threat. Miller finished the first half with 16 of the Owls’ 27 points, scoring from all points of the floor.
Everyone besides Miller seemed tense and struggled once UAB started to pull away, and the Blazers closed out the final six minutes of the first half on a 21-9 run to take a 43-27 lead into the half.
The Blazers picked up right where they left off in the second half, opening the first four minutes with a commanding 12-2 toward a 26-point lead. That run all but put the game out of reach with 16 minutes left to play.
Temple gave one final push in the second half, cutting UAB’s lead down to 12 points, but they never got any closer. Temple closed out the final nine minutes by shooting 9-14 from the field and couldn’t get a stop to cut the deficit. UAB continued to perform well offensively and kept the Owls at arm’s length to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
“I think they’re really skilled,” Fisher said. “I think they’ve shot the ball extremely well against us. I think they put the ball on the floor, and they have bigs that go to the glass really hard, so you can’t take everything away.”
Turnovers plagued Temple throughout the game as the team finished with 14, its highest total since Feb. 18 against Memphis. The Blazers scored 17 points off the Owls’ turnovers.
The Owls’ season is now over. The team experienced several ups and downs, but they gained a lot of optimism both inside and outside the team for the future of the program.
“It’s been an incredible run with these guys,” Fisher said. “The greatest joy that I had as a coach was watching them enjoy this week. The energy and the passion, I think they really represented our university great, and that I’m grateful for.”
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