At the 9:10 mark of the first half, senior Michael Dixon Jr. made a driving layup to grab the lead for the Tigers, and, for the first twelve minutes, Sunday's game hung in the balance. At that point, the team held a 16-15 lead despite missing six layup or dunk opportunities and giving easy looks to some of the Virginia's jump-shooters.
Following that layup, the University of Memphis men's basketball team struggled and only scored four more points in the next nine minutes. The University of Virginia scored 20 in the same span, leading the Tigers by 15 at the half.
Virginia's pack-line defense rendered the Tigers incapable of getting quality, easy looks inside the paint and forced a lot of missed layups, even within five feet of the basket. The four off-ball defenders crowded the inside and encouraged contested long-range looks, ultimately dooming the Tigers to a poor shooting night beyond the arc.
Head coach Josh Pastner addressed the media after the game about the pack-line defense and how some defenses have caused the Tigers to struggle this season.
"That's just kind of been our thing this year, where we've gone stretches where we've missed short shots or open shots and it's kind of had just an avalanche effect on us," the fifth-year coach said.
After starting one for nine from three-point range in the first half, the Tigers finished 3-13 from deep. For the night, Memphis was limited anywhere from outside, scoring 18 points on Sunday from outside the paint after averaging 38.2 per game this season.
Throughout the first half, the Tigers settled for their first look instead of searching for the best available shot, analyst and former NBA player Len Elmore noted several times on the TNT broadcast that the team was rushing themselves in order to quicken the pace of the game.
Senior Memphis guard Joe Jackson heralded the Cavalier's defense after the game. Jackson finished with seven points in his final collegiate game.
"They've got to be the best defensive team I've ever played against in college," Jackson, a Memphis native, said. "The way they see the ball, never lose sight of the basketball. They help each other out every possession. You will never get an easy layup on them."
In the second half, Memphis scored 11 points in the first five minutes but the Cavaliers matched that total in the same span. No matter how quickly the Tigers scored, their defense was unable to execute and prevent Virginia from scoring.
Virginia head coach Tony Bennett's squad was highly efficient from the floor and they made 30 of 54 attempts from the field for a 55.6 percent shooting night.
The prevalent theme from the Memphis loss would have to be the points left on the floor by the Tigers and an inability to cover players for the entire 35-second shot clock.
Numerous hurried layups and a lack of patience offensively accounted for some of the deficit for the Tigers.
Defensively, points inside were too easy for the Cavaliers and their screens in the half-court sets had the Tigers on their heels with Joe Harris and London Perrantes freeing themselves for open looks off of these screens.
"When we get down, we obviously dig ourselves a hole and I guess we just, I don't know, lose focus on the defensive end," Dixon said after the game. "And I guess we just try to get it back on the offensive end instead of locking in even more defensively in trying to get stops."
Although an 18-point loss is not a great way to send off the seniors, this has been a groundbreaking year for the team as a whole and for Pastner's five-year tenure. The Tigers notched five top-25 wins after failing to win any games over ranked opponents in the last five seasons. Throughout his first five years, he has won more games (130) than any other Memphis coach in his first five years.
After the game, Pastner credited his seniors for keeping the program at a high level.
"And through time, these guys to my left (Jackson, Dixon, Chris Crawford, Geron Johnson) have made the program not only stay above water, we were able to get to land and have a lot of success, a lot of wins. And I'm very, very proud of those guys," he said.
