SMU Advances To AAC Title Game
via SMU
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — SMU goes into Sunday’s American Athletic Conference championship on a 15-game winning streak, having won more games than any other team in the program’s history.
Not bad for a squad that didn’t get a single vote in the preseason AP Poll.
Sterling Brown scored 22 points as the 12th-ranked Mustangs (29-4) beat UCF 70-59 on Saturday in the AAC semifinals.
Semi Ojeleye added 17 points, and Shake Milton had 14 of his 16 points in the second for SMU, which is back in the championship game after missing last year’s tournament because of NCAA sanctions. The Mustangs won the title in 2015.
SMU has won 25 of its last 26 after a 4-3 start to their season.
“It’s a good accomplishment, but we know we’re not done,” said Brown. “We’ve got a bigger goal that we’re trying to accomplish and add to those wins.”
B.J. Taylor had 20 points and Nick Banyard 16 for the Knights (21-11). They had won six in a row.
Neither team led by more than six before Milton stole the ball from the 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall under the UCF basket and made the Knights pay on the other end with a 3-pointer for a 42-34 lead. Taylor was trying to signal for a timeout that led to a technical foul and Sterling Brown extended the lead to 10 with two free throws.
“I didn’t see what happened, but it’s basketball,” said UCF coach Johnny Dawkins. “The player has to call (timeout). Everyone now is making plays on the basketball while the player is trying to make the call. So when that happens, there’s going to be a lot of guys, a lot of congestion in that area.”
That was part of a 14-3 run that gave the Mustangs a 50-36 lead and control of the game with just over 9 minutes to play.
Taylor tried to shoot UCF back into the game. He hit consecutive 3-pointers that cut the lead to eight points with 3 minutes left, but that was as close as the Knights would get.
Ojeleye had 10 of the Mustangs’ 26 points first-half points and SMU went into halftime leading by just three. Taylor had eight for UCF and hit the first 3-pointer of the second half to tie the game at 26.
Both teams hit 10 3-point shots, but neither could score inside, each getting just 10 points in the paint.
“Both teams were locked in defensively, said SMU forward Ben Moore. “Come around tournament time, that’s the most important thing. So both teams were playing hard on the defensive end and we were trying to keep them out of the paint. So that was a big key.”
SMU finished with 15 assists on its 21 baskets, five of them from Milton.
