Backbone.
The Memphis Tigers displayed the most important anatomical part in sports Tuesday night at FedExForum in earning their third straight win. Down 12 points late in the second half, Memphis surged with a 17-2 run to lead at halftime, then traded jabs and uppercuts with one of its top American Athletic Conference rivals, ultimately prevailing thanks, in part, to replay review.
Memphis Athletics / Joe Murphy
With his Mustangs trailing 73-70 and less than two minutes to play, Kendric Davis hit what appeared to be a double-clutch three-pointer as the shot clock expired. But after an official review, the shot was disallowed, so instead of a tie game, Memphis took possession with that three-point lead intact. Alex Lomax and Lester Quinones combined to hit three of six free throws in the closing seconds to help Memphis improve to 9-5 while SMU drops to 8-3. The Tigers are now in sole possession of second place in the AAC with a league record of 5-2. (SMU is now 4-3.)
DeAndre Williams scored 10 points for the Tigers and hit a pair of three-pointers in the second half, the latter giving Memphis that 73-70 lead. Freshman center Moussa Cisse posted another double-double (10 points and 10 rebounds) and Alex Lomax led the home team with 14 points off the bench. Landers Nolley hit three of five three-point attempts and scored 12 points, a figure matched by D.J. Jeffries in a reserve role.
Davis entered the contest averaging 19.3 points for the Mustangs but was held to only eight. Tyson Jolly led SMU with 15 points but fouled out late in the game.
SMU was the first Tiger opponent in six games to reach 60 points, but Memphis hit 51 percent of its shots from the field and 10 of 21 three-point attempts. The game wouldn’t have been as close had the Tigers not missed 13 of 25 free throws.
The teams will face each other again Thursday night in an unusual midweek rematch. Tuesday’s game was rescheduled after a January 15th postponement due to positive Covid tests in the SMU program.
