Memphis head coach John Calipari had been telling Dajuan Wagner all season that the freshman guard needed to be more aggressive during the final minutes of games.
Wagner just waited until his birthday to follow through.
The heralded freshman, who turned 19 Monday, scored the Tigers’ final eight points last night at The Pyramid before 12,143 to lead Memphis to a 78-72 victory over Tulane and to its best league start ever at 10-0.
“Dajuan Wagner, I thought, took over the game in the second half when he needed to,” Calipari said. “He got us a little gap. He did some good things today.”
With the score knotted 70-70 and just over 1:30 remaining, Wagner stole Tulane forward Linton Johnson’s pass attempt and raced to the other end of the floor, hammering down a two-handed slam over Johnson.
A few seconds later, Wagner found a hole in Tulane’s zone defense, nailing a three-pointer to give Memphis a 75-70 lead. He then nailed 3-of-4 free throws down the stretch to give the Tigers (20-4, 10-0 in C-USA) their 10th consecutive victory.
“Coach told me he needed me in the last five minutes,” said Wagner, who finished the contest with 25 points on 9-of-24 shooting. “In these last games, I’m starting to learn. I’m still young.”
Tulane (12-9, 4-6 in C-USA), which shot 46.2 percent for the game to Memphis’ 42.4 percent, used an 18-5 run late in the second half to take a 70-69 lead with 2:02 remaining before Wagner’s late-game heroics.
“What’s happening is when you’re 10-0, the other teams are going to come after you teeth and feet,” Calipari said. “I mean, they’re coming. They’re going to give us great effort, which is what Tulane did today.
“They made us play. They did good stuff double-teaming the post and we weren’t finding the open men like we normally do. Their press even bothered us a little bit.”
Said sophomore point guard Anonio Burks: “They double-teamed everybody on the court. Somebody had to step up and make big shots and we had to find the open man.”
Memphis, playing in the first half without senior forward Kelly Wise because of a hip injury, was outscored by Tulane 13-4 over the final 5:34 of the first half and led by just one point (37-36) at the break.
The Green Wave then scored the first four points of the second half to take a 40-37 lead before Wise, who played all 20 second-half minutes, sparked the Tigers with a rim-rattling, two-handed jam off a Memphis miss.
“We had to win this game,” Calipari said. “There was no, ‘Let’s just try to win it without Kelly.’ When I saw that we couldn’t win it without him, we were playing him.”
Wise finished the game with eight points and eight boards.
“Let’s give Tulane credit, they came in here and really took it to us,” Calipari said. “If we don’t play Kelly Wise in the second half, we probably don’t win this game.”
Chris Massie added 13 points and 14 rebounds for Memphis while Brandon Brown, who scorched the Tigers for 29 points in Memphis 78-70 win at Tulane Jan. 12, scored a game-high 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting.
