South Rises in Final

With Dajuan Wagner on his team, John Calipari’s job is easy.

With less than a minute to play Tuesday night and Memphis facing its second consecutive NIT semifinal loss, Calipari told Wagner: “Dajuan, make a play.”

Wagner, who finished with 32 points, complied. He drove the lane and fed Kelly Wise for a dunk with 18.6 seconds to play to lift the Tigers (26-9) over Temple, 78-77, at New York.

Memphis will play South Carolina for the NIT title Thursday.

“That was great coaching strategy,” Calipari said of Wagner’s play. “Give him the ball and get out of his way.”

Temple (18-15), out of timeouts, took three shots at the end, two by David Hawkins and one by Kevin Lyde, but couldn’t put away a game in which it erased deficits of 12 and six points.

“I lost the game,” said Lyde, who finished with 16 points. “I’m supposed to make that shot. I didn’t.”

Alex Wesby led the Owls with 25 points, Brian Polk had 15 and Hawkins 14.

The Owls were without injured top scorer Lynn Greer, who averaged 23.2 points.

Calipari noted Greer’s absence.

“When you take away a team’s star player, it’s like you’re playing a team that’s circling the wagons,” he said.

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South Carolina 66, Syracuse 59--Aaron Lucas scored a season-high 20 points to lead the Gamecocks in the other semifinal.

The Gamecocks (22-14) shot 50% from three-point range.

Syracuse’s Preston Shumpert scored 28 points.