During
football season, it’s called the Black-and-Blue Game. The often-beautiful game
of basketball absorbed its share of bruises Friday afternoon, as the
second-ranked Memphis Tigers beat Southern Miss, 69-53, in the semifinals of the
Conference USA tournament at FedExForum. The U of M advanced to a fourth
consecutive C-USA title game, but only after surviving a game that saw 40 fouls,
31 turnovers, and neither team shoot better than 42 percent.
“It’s
really hard when you have someone pushing you everytime down the court,” said
Tiger point guard Derrick Rose after the game. “But you’ve got to stay focused
and make plays.”
Make
plays Rose did. The freshman sensation scored 25 points and was the only Tiger
to make multiple three-point shots, dropping four of the seven he attempted.
With shooters (Doneal Mack missed six of his seven trey attempts) and rebounders
(Joey Dorsey grabbed but two in 20 minutes) struggling, Rose spearheaded the
home team through what amounts to a necessary contest on the way to a top seed
in the NCAA tournament.
“Either
your opponent gets the better of you, or you get the better of him,” emphasized
Memphis coach John Calipari. “Did they outscrap you, or did you outscrap them?”
Larry
Eustachy’s Golden Eagles did some scrapping in the first half, climbing out of a
20-3 hole with an 18-7 run, before Andre Allen drilled a three-pointer to give
Memphis a 32-23 advantage at halftime. With steady play from juniors Chris
Douglas-Roberts and Antonio Anderson — who combined for nine assists and zero
turnovers – the Tigers kept the margin comfortably in double digits throughout
the second half.
There
was a measure of payback for Tiger hoops historians, as Southern Miss spanked
the Tic Price-coached Tigers by 28 points in the 1998 C-USA tourney. But this is
a new decade, a new arena, a new conference really. And Southern Miss proved to
be merely the latest Lilliputian in the way of this blue-and-gray-clad
Gulliver’s travels.
The win
improves Memphis to 32-1. They’ll face the winner of Friday night’s UTEP-Tulsa
clash for the championship at 10:30 Saturday morning. Regardless of who wins the
Miner-Golden Hurricane game, the Tigers will be facing an opponent playing its
fourth game in as many days. UTEP — coached by former Tiger assistant Tony
Barbee — gave Memphis fits at FedExForum in a narrow defeat on February 2nd. The
Tigers beat Tulsa twice in the regular season (by 15 on the road, and by 15 at
home).
