Looking for a get-right game, Memphis welcomed the FAU Owls to the FedEx Forum for a Sunday afternoon matinee matchup of American Athletic Conference basketball.

Five remaining games are on the schedule, including Sunday’sincluding Sunday’s one against FA. The Tigers welcomed the Owls as they looked to bounce back after a disappointing loss to the Shockers of Wichita State last Sunday.

In round one, back in early January, FAU held its own with the Tigers in the first half before eventually seeing the Memphis lead grow as the second half progressed.

At the under-12 media timeout in the second half, Memphis led FAU 59-46. A nine-to-zero Memphis run at the under-8 media timeout drastically improved the Memphis lead to 72-49 over the Owls with 7:24 remaining on the game clock. Memphis would quickly put the Owls away, pulling away to an 84-65 victory.

PJ Haggerty and Dain Dainja led the way in scoring for Memphis with 22 points each.

Memphis Box Score

Here’s the deal: coming into Sunday’s matchup with FAU, we drastically needed a win after the latest bracketology from Joe Lunardi had the Tigers slated for a seven seed had the NCAA Tournament started today—last Sunday’s embarrassing loss to Witchita State. Memphis needed a game against a solid team to get right and get the ship back on track. Coach Hardaway had his team ready for the moment and opened up a good old-fashioned butt-kicking in the second half, cruising to another easy win over the Florida Atlantic Owls.

With Sunday’s win over FAU, next Sunday’s matchup in Birmingham between the Tigers and Blazers might be one of the most highly anticipated in the conference’s history. Memphis dominated UAB earlier in the season, and the Tigers currently have a game on them and North Texas in the AAC standings. A win over the Blazers next Sunday and the Tigers would be one step closer to earning an outright AAC Regular season championship while earning the top seed in the upcoming American Athletic Conference Tournament in Ft. Worth in two weeks.

With Sunday’s win over FAU, the Tigers improved to 22-5 and 12-2 in AAC play.

Memphis will return to action on Wednesday night, welcoming Rice to the FedEx Forum before a monster road game on Sunday against UAB.