Memphis junior center Earl Barron must have listened to his coach’s halftime plea Wednesday night.
After scoring just six points while being outmuscled by Louisville’s big men in the first half, Barron exploded for 13 points and six rebounds after the break to finish with 19 points and 11 rebounds, leading Memphis to an 80-70 win over the rival Cardinals before a raucous crowd of 19,914 at The Pyramid.
“I called him in my office before we went out (in the second half) and I said, ‘Are you hurt? Are you sick? Well, come on babe — we need you to win the game. You’re better than this,’” Calipari said after his team’s eighth win in a row Wednesday night.
“What I did was, we started the half and I said, ‘We’re coming to you. You’re either going to win this game, or we’re not winning this game. We’re coming to you.”
Barron, though, said Calipari wasn’t the only one to challenge him at halftime.
“I got challenged by not only Coach, but a few more players on the team,” he said. “For the team to be successful, they told me to step it up. I knew (Louisville) couldn’t defend us down in the post.”
Barron, who made 5-of-7 shots after the break, scored eight of Memphis’ first 14 second-half points to help the Tigers open up a 52-44 lead with 13:51 remaining in the game. But Louisville (12-7, 3-5 in Conference USA), led by sophomore forward Luke Whitehead’s 20 points, answered Memphis (18-4, 8-0 in C-USA) with an 8-0 run two minutes later to close the gap to 57-56 with 9:54 to play.
“They made runs at us and the game got close,” Calipari said. “(We) responded, and I’m happy about that.”
After a timeout, Memphis responded with an 8-0 run of its own, highlighted by a thunderous dunk from Memphis forward Chris Massie over the backs of three Louisville players. The Cardinals managed to cut the Tigers’ lead to three points twice (65-62 and 73-70) down the stretch, but got no closer.
“You knew it was going to be a hard-fought game,” Calipari said. “Rick (Pitino) wasn’t going to let those guys go away. We had opportunities to really get (the lead) to 15 or 16. Problem is, we’re just too young. They press us, and we’re like losing our minds. We scored pretty good in the half court, but what we ended up doing is rushing it up the court when we didn’t need to.”
Wise, who finished the game with 16 points and 18 rebounds to become C-USA’s first 1,000-point scorer/rebounder, said the Tigers have improved when it comes to delivering the knock-out blow.
“I think in our last couple of games, we’ve showed that we’re learning how to finish games off,” Wise said. “We’re picking and choosing our spots and (learning) how to keep leads, how to fight off runs, how to expand leads and how to get back in games when we’re behind.
“Guys may have been a little rattled (before) and not have known what to do. Tonight you all saw, guys knew to just slow it down. We had the lead. We had the ball. They had to score. We had time on our side. Guys are understanding that now.
Said Barron: “(The win) tells us we can win when teams make a run and make it close at the end.”
Louisville, though, made more than just a second-half run at the Tigers.
After two Kelly Wise free throws gave Memphis its biggest lead (29-18) with 6:28 remaining in the first half, the Cardinals made eight of their next 13 shots during a 14-3 run to knot the score at 32-32. Memphis, though, managed to take a 38-34 advantage into halftime.
“I think in the first half, we kind of got caught up a couple of times playing their game and trying to just run up and down,” Wise said. “In the second half, we took our spots when they gave us chances to fast break and we slowed it down and ran some offense.”
Wise admitted after the game that Memphis would have enjoyed more success against the Cardinals had it connected on more of its free-throw attempts. The Tigers finished an ice-cold 19-of-35 from the charity stripe.
“Luckily tonight, we did enough that (free throws) didn’t (matter),” he said.
Said Calipari: “We missed some free throws, but that’s us. We are what we are. There are times when we’ll go 80 percent and there are other times when we’re going to go 50. We just got to play through that stuff.”
Freshman guard Dajuan Wagner led the Tigers with 23 points while point guard Antonio Burks added 10 points and six assists.
Cardinal guard Reece Gaines, who came into the game as the conference’s third-leading scorer behind Cincinnati guard Steve Logan and Wagner, finished the contest with 17 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.
Pitino said he was impressed with the effort of his team Wednesday night, but added he looks forward to future meetings with Memphis.
“I think tonight we made it a rivalry game,” said Pitino, who dropped to 7-5 all-time against Calipari. “It’s going to be special down the road.”
