FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Fabian White Jr. scored 20 points, fellow big man Josh Carlton had 18 and 18th-ranked and No. 1 seed Houston beat No. 3 Memphis 71-53 in the 2022 Air Force Reserve American Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball championship game Sunday.
A day after White played less than three minutes in the Cougars’ semifinal win because of back tightness, the first-team all-conference forward helped the top-seeded Cougars (29-5) earn the AAC’s automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row.
Tigers (21-10) center Jalen Duren, a 6-foot-11 freshman who was a first-team All-AAC pick, had 14 points and 10 rebounds. DeAndre Williams had 10 points.
Taze Moore had 11 points and eight assists for Houston, which is the No. 5 seed in the South Region and will play UAB. Jamal Shead scored 10 points. Kyler Edwards had eight points, 11 rebounds and five assists.
Duren also had limited time in the semifinal round, playing 17 minutes in a win over SMU. He got two fouls in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the game, and didn’t return until after halftime, when he exited for 6 1/2 minutes after falling hard to the floor after blocking a shot.
The Tigers, after trailing by as many as 15 points in the second half, closed to 51-47 on Duren’s emphatic two-handed dunk with 6:55 left. They never got closer.
Carlton had a three-point play on a slam dunk while being fouled after a nice pass from Moore. Shead then had a hustle play to force a turnover when Memphis had a breakaway chance, and White hit two free throws after a hard tumble when the upper half of his body ended up under the scoring table.
White took a shot to the mouth when fouled in the opening part of the second half. But his jumper right after that ignited a quick 8-0 run in which he also had a layup between Shead making two impressive plays. Shead had a basket high off the glass, then a rebound and a long pass ahead to a breaking Edwards for a dunk.
Duren finished with 37 rebounds for the entire Championship, a new tournament record. Gary Clark had 35 rebounds for Cincinnati in 2018.
All-Tournament Team
Fabian White Jr, Houston – Most Outstanding Player
Jalen Duren, Memphis
Kyler Edwards, Houston
Taze Moore, Houston
DeAndre Williams, Memphis