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AAC Tourney Recap


(Photo by Noah Francis)


by Neil Meyer


Fort Worth, Texas- The first day of the AAC Men’s conference tournament kicked

off this afternoon here at Dickies Arena and man was it a good one. It started with

#9 seed East Carolina upsetting #8 seed USF 73 to 58. A game in which ECU was

down by nearly 15 points early then rallied back behind big time Performances

from Jaden Walker and RJ Felton.


Walker, finished with 22 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists, while Felton finished

with 22 points as well. Bulls senior guard Tyler Harris finished with a game high 26

points and left every ounce of sweat on the hardwood this afternoon. Harris

finished 8 th in the American in scoring averaging nearly 17 points per game, and

put on a shooting clinic here at Dickies Arena in game one of the day.

Now let’s look at the second game of the day UCF vs SMU. A game in which SMU

started with a huge 7-0 run to take an early 9-2 lead forcing an early Knight

timeout. However, the Mustangs kept their foot on the gas and took their largest

lead of the game in the first half, leading 24-11. However, the Knights crawled

back slowly and surely in the second half behind huge second halves from guards

CJ Kelly and Ithiel Horton. Kelly finished with a game high of 21 points. (18) in the

second half. Horton on the other hand shot 0-7 from the field in the first half, but

then shot 6-10 in the second half tallying 15 second half points to help propel the

Knights over the Mustangs. We can’t forget about highly touted prospect Taylor

Hendricks when talking about the Knights though, the 6’9 freshman was

phenomenal tonight, as he finished with 15 points and eight rebounds in the

Knights 76-70 victory over SMU. A performance that stood out for the Mustangs

was guard Zhuric Phelps who finished with 21 points and 7 assists. Phelps didn’t

play the last time these two teams faced, and man was he a difference-maker

here this afternoon. Phelps, announced on Twitter last week he will return to SMU

for his final year of eligibility.


The Third and final game of the day was Tulsa vs Wichita State and man did

Wichita State dominates from start to finish here at Dickies Arena. The Shockers

outscored the Golden Hurricanes 46-24 in the paint, as the Shockers were just

dominating inside all night. The Golden Hurricanes have been without leading

Scorer Sam Griffin for the last month due to injury, but man did they miss his

presence here tonight. The Golden Hurricanes were led by Tyler Dalger who


finished with 21 points on 6-13 shooting. However, outside Dalger the Golden

Hurricanes didn’t have much offense. The Shockers saw five players score in

double-figures as James Rojas, Kenny Pohto, and Jaren Pierre Jr each had 13

points as they shot nearly 63% from the field in their 81-63 victory over SMU.

Heading into the second round, here are the matchups we will see tomorrow

afternoon.


#8 ECU vs #1 Houston at 1pm.

#4 UC vs #5 Temple at 3:30pm

#7 UCF vs #2 Memphis at 7pm

#6 Wichita State vs #3 Tulane at 9pm

We will be back here at Dickies Arena tomorrow afternoon to provide all of the

latest updates and news regarding the AAC Conference tournament.

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