Foul trouble and injuries caught up to the Memphis Tigers, as No. 21 Southern Methodist (23-5, 14-2 AAC) pulled away in the second half to take a 66-57 victory at FedExForum Thursday night.
Memphis (17-11, 9-6 AAC) was down to one point guard for nearly the entirety of the second half. The Tigers were without sophomore point guard Pookie Powell due to illness, and redshirt freshman Markel Crawford was limited to only 12 first half minutes due to a jaw injury he suffered in the first half. Starter Kedren Johnson fouled out one minute into the second half.
The Tigers kept the game close up until the final minutes, when SMU began to pull away. Memphis head coach Josh Pastner said the late SMU run was “100 percent” due to Memphis’ difficult point guard situation.
Memphis trailed by only two points at the halftime break, with the two teams’ defenses ruling the first 20 minutes. The Tigers shot 36 percent in the opening half, compared to 35 percent from the Mustangs.
Both teams ratcheted up the offense following halftime, but SMU shot a blazing 58 percent and buried the Tigers behind 14 second half points from point guard Nic Moore.
“It wasn’t anything different from the first half, it’s just that they were hitting shots,” Memphis junior forward Shaq Goodwin said of the Mustangs second half shooting. “I mean they hit us with a couple of backdoor alley-oop plays, Nic Moore had a slow start, he picked it up in the second half. They just came up with those big plays towards the end.”
Moore carried the Mustangs with 16 points and five assists, while Goodwin led the way for Memphis with 17 points and seven rebounds while shooting an efficient 7-13 from the field.
The Tigers also received a much-needed boost off the bench from sophomore forward Nick King, who totaled 14 points on 5-7 shooting, but it ultimately wasn’t enough to make up for a poor offensive showing from Austin Nichols, who shot 2-11.
“It was just one of those nights,” Nichols said. “I was missing some easy shots, and I think I let it get to my head a little bit.”
Nichols shot a dreadful 1-8 in the first half, and as a result played only 12 minutes in the second period. Despite the bad shooting he still managed to make an impact on the defensive end of the floor, swatting five shots and grabbing eight rebounds.
With the loss to SMU behind them the Tigers’ focus now turns to Tulsa (20-7, 13-2 AAC). Memphis takes on the Golden Hurricane Saturday evening in the Tigers’ final home contest of the season.
According to Goodwin, thoughts of letting an upset over SMU slip away won’t linger into Saturday’s game.
“It’s easy (to shake this loss off), it’s already over with,” Goodwin said. “It’s already an ‘L’ in the column, so we’re just looking forward to our next opportunity at a top team — Tulsa.”
The Tigers and Golden Hurricane are scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. Saturday at FedExForum, and the game will be televised by ESPNU.
