Temple comes back to beat SMU; St. Joe’s and La Salle fall
Tai Strickland came off the bench and scored 27 points to lead the Owls. The Hawks suffered their third straight loss.
Guard Tai Strickland came off the bench to score 27 points as Temple came back to beat Southern Methodist, 64-57, Wednesday night at the Liacouras Center.
Strickland scored the go-ahead basket on a layup with 50 seconds left for the Owls (14-9, 7-5 American Athletic Conference). Jahlil White contributed 11 points for Temple.
Michael Weathers scored 18 points for SMU (18-6, 9-3), which led, 28-22, at halftime.
George Mason 75, St. Joseph’s 70 — With a seven-point lead and less than two minutes left, St. Joe’s seemed on its way to avenging its Jan. 24 loss at George Mason.
But the Patriots took the lead down the stretch with a 9-0 run and it took a buzzer-beater from the Hawks’ Jordan Hall to send it to overtime, where George Mason prevailed at Hagan Arena.
It was the third straight loss for the Hawks (10-14, 4-9 Atlantic 10).
Josh Oduro led the Patriots (13-11, 6-5) with 33 points, and D’Shawn Schwartz (18 points) hit two threes in their late run.
Hall led St. Joe’s with 17 points to go with six rebounds and six assists. Erik Reynolds II had 16 points and eight rebounds, and Cameron Brown had 15 points and seven rebounds.
The Hawks’ next game is Saturday at home against Dayton (18-8, 10-3).
St. Louis 90, La Salle 64 — In St. Louis, Fred Thatch scored 21 points as the Billikens handed the Explorers their third straight loss and eighth in nine games.
Clifton Moore had 20 points and four blocks for La Salle (7-16, 2-11 A-10) and Jack Clark added 18 points.
St. Louis (18-8, 9-4) jumped to a 7-0 lead and never looked back. The Billikens outrebounded the Explorers 40-21, and outshot them 64.3% to 34.4%.
La Salle returns to action Saturday at UMass (11-13, 4-8).