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NEW YORK -- With Dajuan Wagner on his team, John Calipari's job is easy.

	Dajuan Wagner and the Tigers narrowly escaped Temple to earn a spot in the NIT final.

With less than a minute to play Tuesday night and the Tigers facing their second straight 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 left to put Memphis in the final with a 78-77 victory over Temple.

"That was great coaching strategy," Calipari said. "Give him the ball and get out of his way."

The Tigers (26-9) will play South Carolina, a 66-59 semifinal winner over Syracuse, in Thursday's title game.

Temple, 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.

With 10 minutes to play --_ Temple reclaimed the lead for the first time since 11:56 remained in the first half -- with Polk sinking a 3-pointer that made it 55-54.

The Owls got out to a 61-56 lead, but Wagner converted a three-point play, and later made an NBA-range 3-pointer to give the Tigers a six-point margin of their own, at 71-65. The Owls quickly tied the game again at 71 with 3:09 left.

The Owls (18-15) were without injured top scorer Lynn Greer, who averaged 23.2 points for them. They had beaten crosstown rival Villanova in the quarterfinals without him, but the Owls -- their big men, especially -- appeared to miss the open space his long-distance shooting usually gave them.

In the absence of Greer, who has an ankle injury, Owls coach John Chaney wanted his shooters -- Hawkins and Polk -- to take more shots.

"I got (angry) at Polk," Chaney said. "Once you get in the paint, they have a license to shoot.

"Sometimes I don't think he knows what he does. He doesn't take open shots when he gets them. He decides to drive when he's open. It really (upsets me.)"

Calipari noted the absence of Greer.

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

Wagner's 32 points tied a career high, and he might only have one more game to set a new mark. He has not yet said if he'll declare for the NBA draft.

Last month, he publicly said he would stay at Memphis, only to have Calipari tell him to wait on his decision. For now, the two have one more game to win. Before knowing who he'd play in Thursday's final, someone asked Calipari about his strategy for the game.

He knew how to answer.

"When you have a good player, this isn't brain surgery," he said.