Tag: Memphis beats Cincinnati

The Tigers survived a frenetic, sloppy final minute of play Sunday afternoon to beat a longtime rival and secure their eighth win in nine games. The Cincinnati Bearcats reduced a 10-point Tiger lead to two points (73-71) with twenty seconds to play (thanks to consecutive Memphis turnovers on in-bounds plays), but the Tigers hit seven of eight free throws to escape with a win and improve to 14-6 for the season and 10-3 in the American Athletic Conference. Cincinnati drops to 9-9 (7-6).

The Tigers led start to finish and five players hit double figures in the scoring column. Boogie Ellis drained four three-pointers on his way to 17 points. Landers Nolley and Malcolm Dandridge each scored 14, Moussa Cisse had 11 (to go along with six rebounds), and DeAndre Williams came close to a triple-double with 10 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds. As a team, Memphis shot 43 percent from the field and dominated the glass, pulling down 45 rebounds (15 offensive) to Cincinnati’s 32.

Mike Saunders Jr. and Keith Williams led Cincinnati with 19 points each.

The game will be the only meeting between the Tigers and Bearcats before the AAC tournament, the game in Memphis (scheduled for February 11th) having been cancelled due to Covid-19 restrictions in the Tiger program. It’s only the Tigers’ third win this season on the floor of an AAC opponent. (They won at Tulane and East Carolina.)

Memphis played without junior guard Alex Lomax, sidelined with a left-ankle injury. Lomax is expected to miss the Tigers’ next game, Tuesday night at USF.

Should the Tigers beat the Bulls Tuesday, they could be playing for an NCAA tournament berth next Sunday in Houston. Their game with the 12th-ranked Cougars was originally scheduled for FedExForum, but has been moved to Texas by the AAC because Houston’s home game was among the postponements during the Covid shutdown.

For Penny Hardaway, the win gives him one more (two) as a coach against Cincinnati than he had in two years as a Tiger player.

In the Penny Hardaway Story, Bearcats are villains. This goes all the way back to the winter of 1992 when, in a span of a little over two months, Cincinnati beat the Memphis State Tigers — and their star sophomore guard, Penny Hardaway — four times, including the Midwest Regional final of the NCAA tournament. Hardaway’s last home game as a Tiger came in the Great Midwest Conference tournament on March 13, 1993. The Tigers lost to Cincinnati in the Pyramid. “They’ve always been the team that comes in and punches first,” said Hardaway after Thursday night’s nationally televised game between the Tigers and Bearcats at FedExForum.
Larry Kuzniewski

Malcolm Dandridge

The villains went down this time. With Hardaway now coaching his 22nd-ranked Tigers, Memphis ended a six-game losing streak to Cincinnati by pulling away in the game’s final minutes following a technical foul charged to Bearcat coach John Brannen. (Brannen disputed an offensive foul called on his star guard, Jarron Cumberland. He disputed vigorously, like a good villain.) Four free throws by Lester Quinones and field goals by Alex Lomax, D.J. Jeffries, and Malcolm Dandridge yielded a 10-0 run that secured a second-straight win for Memphis, now 14-3 and 3-1 in the American Athletic Conference. The Bearcats — winners of the AAC tournament last March at FedExForum — fell to 10-7 (3-2).

Making just his second start, freshman center Dandridge scored only three points but otherwise stuffed the stat sheet with seven rebounds, four assists, four steals, and three blocks in 27 minutes on the floor. Hardaway’s former high school player (at East) established some college credentials, and against a formidable foe. “Malcolm helped a lot today,” said Hardaway. “That’s what I’m challenging him to do on a game-to-game basis. You have to come out and make your presence felt, offensively and defensively. A lot of people don’t know what he does out there. He’s kind of quick, knows how to make decisions. He looked really good.”

The Tigers outplayed Cincinnati in a choppy first half and took an 11-point lead (31-20) to the break. But after falling behind by 15 (35-20), the Bearcats surged, outscoring the Tigers 18-2 over a seven-minute stretch to take a 38-37 lead on a Cumberland three-pointer. The Tigers responded, though, with a 10-0 run keyed by a pair of Jeffries three-pointers and a thunderous dunk by Precious Achiuwa, who contributed his 10th double-double of the season (12 points and 11 rebounds) and sixth in a row.
Larry Kuzniewski

Penny Hardaway

“We’ve played in enough games where teams try to beat us up,” said Hardaway. “With Cincinnati, that’s their whole deal. We had to protect home court, and keep punching. We withstood that run. I’m proud of our team, not letting their physicality push us back. We kept moving forward.”

“Malcolm had a really big game today,” added Achiuwa. “We needed his inside presence, a big body to bang [opponents]. He helped me a lot; I really didn’t have to do a lot of banging. Blocking shots, changing shots, he allowed us to stay in the game.”

Jeffries led the Tigers with 18 points and Quinones added 13 (making all three of his three-point attempts). For the fourth straight game, Memphis accumulated more turnovers (17) than assists (14), but held the Bearcats to 30-percent shooting. Cumberland led Cincinnati with 19 points.

“We’ve been in a ton of battles,” acknowledged Hardaway, “more than I’d want. When you’ve been down and come back and won, you don’t have that quit. You’ll never quit. That’s what this team shows. They keep fighting. If we get down, we know we’re not out.”

Spoken like a man who’d just vanquished a villain.

The Tigers’ next game is on January 22nd at Tulsa. They host SMU on Saturday, January 25th.