PHILADELPHIA -- Fresh off its first Associated Press ranking of the season, No. 25 Southern Methodist didn't change the formula one bit.

The best defensive team in the American Athletic Conference came into the City of Brotherly Love and locked down Temple 66-50 for its seventh win in a row on Thursday night.

Tim Jankovich's Mustangs (21-4, 11-1 AAC) have won 17 of their last 18 games and they've done so with some absolutely suffocating defense. Temple was the 18th team in a row that failed to score more than 66 points against SMU, whose 58.6 points-against average entering the night was third best in Division I.

"It's great to get that recognition nationally," redshirt junior Semi Olejeye said. "We feel like we're a team that can compete for a national championship, but we have to stay focused on the bigger picture."

Olejeye led Southern Methodist with a career-high 30 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the floor. The muscular 6-foot-7 wing forward seemed to come up with a key bucket every time Temple got close.

"Feels great to score that many points, but we're the type of team where anybody can go off," he said. "We definitely have a team where anybody can score high numbers."

SMU's win sets up a big-time AAC showdown with No. 11 Cincinnati (22-2, 11-0) on Sunday in Dallas.

"We have a very interesting week here -- I don't know if interesting's the right word, a tough week," Jankovich said. "This was a scary game, and I felt like our guys possibly played a little tight."

The Mustangs led by as many as 15 points early in the second half, but the Owls were able to close within six with under 10 minutes remaining.

Turnover troubles then bit the hosts, who coughed it up four times in a five-possession span with under six minutes left. An Olejeye jumper with 4:56 left pushed the lead back to nine and a baseline jumper by Ben Moore made it a 12-point game with under four minutes left.

Southern Methodist shot 37.9 percent from the field (22 of 58) and won the rebounding battle 49-32, helping it overcome 16 turnovers and zero bench points.

"We have been all year, for my money, we have just been an outstanding rebounding team," Jankovich said. "Our press was really effective, even in the half-court we had some (turnovers), but the problem was we were a little uncharacteristic, we were coughing it up right and left.

"But, thankfully, we were turning them over because we would have had a real deficit had we not done that."

Temple, which had turned the ball over at least 10 times in its last six games, also finished with 16 giveaways, which turned into 17 points the other way.

"I think we've been trying to be more aggressive and trying to get to the basket more, so that leads to some turnovers," sophomore guard Shizz Alston Jr. said. "Some turnovers are uncharacteristic for us ... but some of our turnovers aren't that bad, we're attacking the basket, trying to be aggressive, so I can live with that."

Alston Jr. had 13 points to lead Temple, which made 17 of 59 shots from the floor (30.9 percent). Freshman guard Quinton Rose added 12 points and senior forward Daniel Dingle had 10 for the Owls (13-12, 4-8 AAC), who had won their previous two games.

With the streets of Philadelphia caked in ice, Temple was similarly frozen from the floor in the first half. The Owls managed four points during an almost 11-minute stretch heading into halftime, which saw SMU with a 28-18 advantage after leading by as many as 13.

The Mustangs forced 11 turnovers during the first 20 minutes, leading to 11 points the other way.

"We did a better job against it, only turned it over five times in the second half, but that certainly hurt us in the first half," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "Our offense was what put us behind in the first half."

Temple led 14-12 with 10:44 left in the half before its offense went cold. The Owls missed their next 11 shots.

NOTES: SMU was ranked in the Top 25 this week for the first time this season, marking the fourth consecutive year the Mustangs made an appearance in the poll. ... SMU began the night third in the nation in rebounding margin at plus-11.0 per game. The Mustangs also were highly rated in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.49, 11th) and field-goal defense (38.8 percent, 12th). ... Temple entered the game off back-to-back victories over Tulane and South Florida, its first consecutive victories since Dec. 17 against NJIT and Dec. 22 against Yale. ... The Owls upset a Top 25 program in each of the past 10 years. In December, they beat then-No. 25 Florida State and No. 19 West Virginia to win the NIT Season Tip-Off in Brooklyn.