The University of Memphis men’s basketball team avenged last year’s Senior Day loss with a 92-82 win over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane Sunday afternoon at FedExForum.
Before last year’s loss to the Hurricane, the Tigers had won nine consecutive Senior Day games. Senior forward Shaq Goodwin and freshman forward Dedric Lawson combined for 55 of Memphis’ 92 points to lead the Tigers over the Golden Hurricanes and snapping a two-game losing streak.
“It means a lot, especially last year coming in here and losing to Tulsa,” Goodwin said. “To come in and get the win against Tulsa and get the win with all of these seniors, getting a win for us and for our families who came out here is a great achievement.”
Goodwin was able to get out of a two-game slump early as he scored 14 in the first half. The senior averaged a paltry seven points and 5.5 rebounds in Memphis’ last two losses against South Florida and SMU.
“We needed the win, and we found a way to get it,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner said. “I was really proud and happy for our young men.”
According to reports earlier this week, the Tigers needed to reach a turnstile count of 5,305 for the game to reach an average of 6,000 per game and receive a portion of the Memphis Grizzlies’ annual $800,000 payment.
The announced turnstile count for the game was 9,377, so the Tigers will receive between $420,000 and $480,000 for staying over the 6,000 average turnstile count threshold.
“The good new is we met the scan,” Pastner said. “Thank you for that. It was an effort by the fans that’s much appreciated.”
The Tigers (16-13, 7-9 in AAC), which leads the all-time series against Tulsa 23-15, started off strong with efforts from Goodwin and senior guard Kedren Johnson to jump out to a 22-12 lead in the first half.
Tulsa, (19-10, 11-6 AAC), were able to respond with an 11-0 run later in the half to tie the score at 27.
Senior guard Shaquille Harrison, who scored 20 points on 6-7 shooting from the field with five rebounds and five assists, led the Golden Hurricanes on the stat sheet. The 6-foot-4 guard was a one-man wrecking crew against Memphis last season, averaging 20.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 3.5 steals.
Tulsa suffered foul trouble in the first half as three players had three fouls along with two technical fouls (one on coach Frank Haith), and the Tigers were able to hit 19 of their 27 free throws in the first half. Harrison scored 13 to give Tulsa enough cushion with a 47-46 lead at halftime.
The Golden Hurricane, whose biggest players are a pair of 6-foot-9 players D’Andre Wright and Brandon Swannegan, had their foul trouble in the first half catch up to them in the second as both Wright and Swannegan recorded their fourth foul in the second half. As a result, Tulsa had to roll out a lineup that consisted of five guards, with 6-foot-5 junior Pat Birt the tallest on the court, for a majority of the second half.
In the second half, it was all Lawson and Goodwin.
Lawson scored Memphis’ first seven points of the second half and ended with 27 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, including 8 of 11 from the free throw line. With his 27-point, 12-rebound effort, Lawson moved up to 14 double-doubles on the season and is now only behind Keith Lee (17) and Lorenzen Wright (15) for most double-doubles as a true freshman in Tigers’ history.
Goodwin capitalized on Tulsa’s foul trouble and scored 14 more in the second half, ending with a game-high 28 points and 11 rebounds.
Senior guard Kedren Johnson helped in the effort with 10 points, including eight in the first half. Senior guard-forward Trahson Burrell also put in an 11-point, nine-rebound effort.
“I thought we made some good adjustments in the second half that helped us defensively,” Pastnter said. “I thought our shot selection was pretty good; we talked about that a lot during the pre-game. We had 18 assists on 28 field goals, Shaq and Dedric had a double-double, Burrell was one rebound away from a double-double and I thought Kedren gave us some good minutes to start.”
The Tigers still sit in seventh in the AAC after the win, while Tulsa will drop to fourth behind Cincinnati.
However, with second place SMU suspended from postseason play this season, Memphis clinched the sixth seed in the conference tournament and a first-round bye in Orlando next month with the win against Tulsa.
The University of Memphis men's basketball team kept coach Josh Pastner's streak of never losing three games in a row intact Sunday. Senior forward Shaq Goodwin had a team-high 28 points in the win against Tulsa.
