Temple hangs on to upset top-seeded FAU, reach AAC championship game

FORT WORTH, Texas — Hysier Miller tossed the ball behind his back like he knew Sam Hofman would be there.

Of course, he probably did know. And Hofman was.

The 6-foot-5 forward caught the lob and launched it from near the top of the key. It bounced up and back, hanging in the air for what felt like an eternity before banking in with 9 minutes, 39 seconds. That basket put Temple, the No. 11 seed, up by five in its eventual 74-73 win over second-seeded Florida Atlantic in their American Athletic Conference semifinal Saturday night.

That three was part of an 8-1 Owls surge, which was part of a yet-more-improbable run as 11th-seeded Temple held on to punch its ticket into the AAC championship game. The Owls will face No. 4 seed Alabama-Birmingham on Sunday (3 p.m., ESPN), with the automatic NCAA Tournament bid on the line.

“Our focus is always on getting better,” coach Adam Fisher said. “We don’t really talk about winning and losing and this and that, and even at halftime today. If we do the right things we’ll be happy. That’s what we talk about.”

Just over five months ago, the AAC’s coaches picked one set of Owls to win the conference (Florida Atlantic) and another to finish 12th (Temple).

That largely played out through the regular season; Temple, hampered by a well-publicized 10-game skid, finished 11th, while Florida Atlantic was ranked in the AP Top 25 the entire way, finished second, and was predicted to be an eight-seed in the NCAA Tournament entering Saturday.

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But here they were Saturday in the AAC tournament semifinals. And the underdogs from Philadelphia prevailed. Again.

“We play for those guys that came before us,” Fisher said. “We know they have led Temple to places we want to go to. I think there’s no better way to get to where you want to go than to hear from people that have done it and done it in that cherry and white.”

Less than 24 hours after a defensive battle, Temple (16-19) found itself tasked with slowing down the top offense in the conference. Florida Atlantic (25-8) entered averaging 82.8 points per game, powered by starting guard Johnell Davis, the fourth-leading scorer in the AAC (18.2 ppg).

But, much like the past two games, the Owls got off to a slow start offensively and turned it on in the second half. They hit half of their three-point attempts, including 61.5% in the second half. That effort was led by Miller, who finished with 21 points on 8 of 16 shooting (5 of 10 from three) and four steals.

After jumping out to a quick 6-2 lead in the game’s first three minutes, Temple went 1-for-16 from the field, a drought that wasn’t broken until Jahlil White’s layup at the 5:55 mark. Florida Atlantic reclaimed the advantage — and then some — during that span, using a 12-0 run to take a 21-9 lead.

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White followed his icebreaking layup with a second-chance bucket to make it a seven-point game, but Vladislav Goldin answered with a 5-0 run of his own to extend the advantage to 12 with 4:13 left. The 7-1 Goldin finished with 23 points on 10 of 12 shooting, and AAC player of the year Davis had 18 points and seven rebounds.

“Obviously their size, their ability to make shots, and they flow into their offense so well,” Fisher said of Florida Atlantic. “Their transition, make or miss, they fly it up. So we wanted to try to change the pace a little bit. I thought that really helped. But it’s these guys, their activity, their effort, they played so hard, and then we rebounded. I think we only gave up two offensive rebounds, which was huge.”

Temple was outrebounded, 36-26, but held a 4-2 advantage in offensive boards. The Owls entered halftime trailing by eight after cutting Florida Atlantic’s 12-point advantage in half with 2:24 left in the period.

“We’ve been in this situation,” Fisher said. “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.

“On the defensive end, our activity was great, and, again, our brand of perfect is playing together. ... We mess up some assignments, but we do it hard, we do it together, and we communicate, and that’s our brand of basketball.”

Temple proved to be a second-half team in their two previous upsets over SMU and Charlotte, and, on Saturday, the Owls made it three in a row.

Florida Atlantic stretched its lead to 10 just 15 seconds into the second half, but the Owls rattled off a trio of threes in a little over a minute to climb back and ultimately tied it at 46 on a three by Steve Settle III with 15:19 to go. They reclaimed the lead, 49-48, on a layup by Jordan Riley about two minutes later and never let it go, holding Florida Atlantic without a bucket from the floor for 7:12.

But, after Temple stretched its lead to 64-57, Florida Atlantic rallied and cut its deficit to two with 3:52 to go on a Goldin layup. The Floridian Owls tied it at 64 on a Davis layup with exactly three minutes to go, but Temple immediately responded with a pull-up jumper from Shane Dezonie (nine points) and a pair of free throws by Riley (16 points).

After Settle hit a free throw with 45 seconds left to make it a 72-66 game, Florida Atlantic made one final push with five unanswered points. But the Owls delivered at the line when it mattered most, and Miller clung to the ball as he was swarmed by Owls and the final second ticked away.

The only team to win five games in as many days is UConn in the 2011 Big East tournament. Temple is going for that mark on Sunday. How do the Owls prepare for yet another quick turnaround?

“Credit to Coach Fisher,” Miller said. “Every preparation for the whole season has been the same. We’ve been consistent with everything we do. I’m sure nothing will change. We’ll follow the same schedule that we’ve been following since November, so I think we’re going to do the same thing.”