Memphis made easy work of the Jaguars of IUPUI Tuesday night at FedExForum, the Tigers’ final tune-up before conference play begins on December 29th. The visitors missed their first eight shots and the U of M had a 9-0 lead six minutes into the game. Back-to-back three pointers by Kedren Johnson and K.J. Lawson extended the lead to 15-2 and the margin only grew throughout the rest of the contest.
Tiger coach Josh Pastner utilized his entire bench, 11 of his players seeing at least 10 minutes on the floor. Pastner made the first change to his starting lineup in 11 games, replacing junior guard Avery Woodson with freshman guard Jeremiah Martin. The move seemed to benefit both players, Martin providing an energy booster at both ends of the floor and Woodson scoring a game-high 16 points while hitting four of six from three-point range.
“Jeremiah provided good energy,” said Woodson, “getting us off to a good start. If that’s what we need to win, then I’m all for it.” It was just the third game (out of 43) in Woodson’s two-season Tiger career that he came off the bench. Martin had five points, two assists, three steals, and three blocks in 22 minutes.
K.J. Lawson added 15 points off the bench in helping the Tigers to improve to 8-3 (IUPUI falls to 4-10). Freshman Nick Marshall played a season-high 13 minutes, scored eight points, and grabbed nine rebounds. Shaq Goodwin and Ricky Tarrant Jr. each added nine points. Memphis again enjoyed a steady parade to the free-throw line, hitting 20 of 26 (77 percent).
The Jaguars were held to 25-percent shooting and were led by Darell Combs with 15 points.
“Defensively, we were good from the tip,” said Pastner. “The one thing [that bothers me] is the 12 offensive rebounds we allowed. We’ve got to do better than that. That’s not on the bigs; that’s on the perimeter guys not cracking back on rotations. Jeremiah brought great energy, and it triggered everybody else.”
In measuring his team’s growth, Pastner suggested the record could be better, but there remains room for improvement with the AAC opener (against Tulane) looming. “Before the last game [against Ole Miss], we were free throws away from being undefeated,” he said. “I’d prefer to be 11-0. I think we’re getting better. We’ve had two really bad halves of basketball, the first against UT-Arlington and the first against Ole Miss. Those bit us in the butt. We have to make that up. We’ve got some youth and we’ve got to clean up some things.”
The Tigers will host the Green Wave next Tuesday then play a pair of nonconference games (against South Carolina and Nicholls State) before returning to league play for good.
