The Tigers found their range from three-point country Thursday night at FedExForum and earned their biggest win of the season over Wichita State. Memphis hit 11 of 18 three-pointers to pull away and cruise to its first victory of 2021 and the 50th win of Penny Hardaway’s three-year career as Tiger coach. Seven Tigers hit a long-distance shot, sophomore Landers Nolley leading the way with four of five trey attempts finding their mark. Nolley led the Tigers with 16 points.
Memphis Athletics/Joe Murphy
Moussa Cisse
The Tigers led by six (25-19) at halftime then expanded the lead with Moussa Cisse‘s best four minutes of the season. The freshman center scored eight points, six of them via slam dunks, to help the Tigers off to an uncharacteristic hot second-half start. When junior guard Alex Lomax drained a three-pointer eight minutes after halftime, the Tiger lead swelled to 16 points (48-32). Lomax scored a season-high 12 points off the Memphis bench and also handed out six assists.
The Shockers shot terribly throughout the game, missing all 12 of their three-point attempts before halftime and hitting only two of 23 for the game. Overall, Wichita State shot 29 percent from the field while the Tigers hit 46 percent of their attempts. Shocker guard Tyson Etienne entered the game averaging 17.9 points and scored only three (missing 11 of 12 field-goal attempts).
Memphis improves to 7-5 with the victory (3-2 in the American Athletic Conference), while Wichita State drops to 8-4 (4-2).
Cisse finished the game with a double-double (12 points and 10 rebounds) and DeAndre Williams scored 10 points for Memphis, his fourth double-figure scoring game in five outings.
The Tigers will next play Sunday afternoon at East Carolina (1-3 in the AAC). Thursday night’s contest was the first of four they’ll play in eight days, making up earlier games postponed by coronavirus testing policy among their opponents. They return to FedExForum Tuesday night to face SMU.
