Despite an offensive struggle against Tennessee Tech, the University of Memphis men’s basketball team was able to pull away with a 76-61 win.
The Tigers’ next game will be against LSU on Nov. 13 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Their next home game will be Nov. 17 against the Yale Bulldogs.
Memphis’ woes:
The Tigers played a subpar game offensively against the Golden Eagles, shooting 31-74 from the field for 41.9 percent and knocking down only six of their 24 attempted three-pointers.
Memphis was out-rebounded by Tennessee Tech 42-15. The Tigers totaled 14 turnovers that led to eight points by the Golden Eagles. Additionally, they had issues moving the ball around, totaling 13 assists. Hardaway said the lack of assists was a factor in shooting struggles, especially in the second half.
“It played a big part of it,” head coach Penny Hardaway said. “We were six of 24 from three, and all those were wide open. I don’t think any of them were contested except for [Harris’], the one that got blocked. We got our shooters looks. We just didn’t make them tonight. We are going to get those same looks and make them next time.”
Freshman Tyler Harris struggled during debut:
The freshman played poorly against Tennessee Tech. Harris shot 0-6 from both the field and the three-point line. Hardaway said it was an inconsistent game.
“Really crazy game,” Hardaway said. “Definitely will take the win. (The) first half was pretty good, and then (during the) second half, everything just went downhill. I mean it was just too up and down for us. Our seniors stabilized us. Freshmen were being freshmen tonight, and that’s part of being a freshman.”
Hardaway went on to say the new guys will work hard to improve and be ready for the LSU game.
Seniors lead the way, despite adversity
Senior forward Kyvon Davenport had a career night, scoring 30 points and 10 rebounds and adding two steals to help lead the team to victory.
Last time Davenport had a game-high for the Tigers was last year in the American Athlete Conference Tournament when he scored 27 points against South Florida in the first round. Despite this, Davenport said he wouldn’t take all the credit for his career night.
“I felt like my teammates did a good job today,” Davenport said. “They found me a lot, and I was just making shots and got off on a good start.”
It’s just the start of the season, but Davenport will be crucial as a leader to an inexperienced team. Hardaway admitted they’ve been tougher on Davenport for results on and off the court.
“We’ve been really hard on Kyvon because Kyvon is kind of laid-back in practice,” Hardaway said. “We just push, push, push because we need his leadership.”
Senior guard Jeremiah Martin also added 18 points, shooting 62 percent from the field. He helped surge the team and the crowd in the beginning of the game hitting his first four shots with two of them being back-to-back threes. Together, Davenport and Martin accounted for 63 percent of the team’s points.
A win is a win:
Hardaway also earned his first official win as a college head coach, and he walked into the post-game press conference with a game ball signed by the players. He talked about how special it was to him even though he already has many game balls from throughout his playing career.
“It’s definitely going to go in my office,” Hardaway said. “This will go up there because I never really envisioned myself being a college coach in the past.”
The city of Memphis came out and supported Hardaway and the team with an announced attendance of 15,231. This was more the numbers from double than last year’s home opener against the University of Arkansas at Little Rock when 7,224 fans showed up for that game.
Sports staff of Joshua A. Vinson, Frank Ramirez and Ryan Brown contributed to this story.
Forward Isaiah Maurice contests a shot at the rim from a Tennessee Tech player. The Tigers won their first matchup of the Penny Hardaway era on Tuesday.
