American Athletic
No. 11 Wichita State ready for Temple in AAC Tournament (Mar 08, 2018)
American Athletic

No. 11 Wichita State ready for Temple in AAC Tournament (Mar 08, 2018)

Published Mar. 8, 2018 10:18 p.m. ET

No. 11 Wichita State ended the regular season on a sour note, losing at home to No. 8 Cincinnati on Sunday. It cost the Shockers a share of the American Athletic Conference title in their first year in the league.

The Shockers will look to bounce back from that loss when they make their AAC Tournament debut by taking on Temple in a quarterfinal matchup in Orlando, Fla.

The Owls (17-14) advanced to face Wichita State by holding off Tulane 82-77 in an opening-round game Thursday.

The Shockers took a couple of days off after suffering the 62-61 loss to Cincinnati when they shot 40.7 percent.

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"It felt like a game that should have been played at a neutral court late in March," sophomore point guard Landry Shamet said after the loss. "It was a hell of a fight."

The Shockers and Owls split their two meetings during the regular season, with each team winning on its own floor. Temple overcame an eight-point halftime deficit and beat Wichita State 81-79 in overtime on Feb. 1, when the Shockers were ranked 16th in the nation.

"It was a game we feel like we could have won and maybe should won," Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall said after the loss at Temple.

The Shockers got revenge against the Owls in mid-February, but it wasn't easy. Temple led 56-42 at halftime, before Shaquille Morris sparked Wichita State in the second half, and the Shockers pulled out a 93-86 win. Morris finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds.

"Tonight, defined our team," Morris said after the last meeting with Temple. "We've gotten better."

Since the last meeting with Temple, Wichita State has won seven of eight. During the seven-game winning streak that ended Sunday, they scored at least 75 points in each game and reached 90 in three games.

Still, the Shockers are not overlooking an opponent with some notable nonconference wins on its resume.

"There's a team (Temple) that beat Clemson, beat Auburn -- two teams that are going to be real low seeds in the tournament, or high seeds however you want to put it," Marshall said this week when looking ahead to a potential rematch with Owls. "They can beat anybody in the country. They finished seventh in our league. It's amazing. It speaks to the depth of the league. That's a tough quarterfinal opponent, for sure, but they have to beat Tulane."

Temple barely survived the Green Wave to advance and get a third crack at the Shockers.

Obi Enechionyia hit five 3-pointers and finished with 19 points, and Shizz Alston added 17 points for the Owls, who led by 13 with 10 minutes to play.

Tulane's Cameron Reynolds hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to trim Temple's lead to one with 32 seconds to play.

Alston and Josh Brown each made a pair of free throws to seal the win for Temple, which snapped a two-game slide and is 5-4 since the last meeting with Wichita State.

"Knowing how good they are, but we're going to have to play our best basketball, no question about it," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "But we're excited to have that opportunity tomorrow. Good basketball team, really good."

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