The Tigers (8-5) had a dominant win against the Florida A&M Rattlers (3-12) in their final non-conference game of the year. The game also marked the sixth of seven games of their month-long home stand for Memphis.
With today’s win, led by Jeremiah Martin who scored 22 points on 70 percent shooting with eight assists and six steals, it marks the Tiger’s 250th win at the FedEx Forum with only 49 losses in their 15th season playing here.
The last game played between these two was in Dec. 2, 1995 back in The Pyramid. The Tigers are now 8-0 against Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opponents.
The Tigers and the Rattlers both came into the game ranked in the nation with forcing turnovers and steals. Florida A&M had 15.1 turnovers forced per game and 8.0 steals a game which ranked 91st and 56th in the nation, respectively. Memphis average 18.4 turnovers forced per game and 8.8 steals a game that rank 9th and 22nd in the nation respectively.
The Tigers moved the ball well as this was the 4th straight game of the Tigers having 20-plus assists. While assists have been up for the team, Penny Hardaway still wants more from his team.
“We want to get up to 30 assists a game,” Hardaway said. “We’ve been more of a setup team in the half-court offense or getting steals and getting layups. We definitely have to start sharing the ball a lot better than we what we have.”
Martin started off slow the first half with only three points coming from the charity stripe and no field goal attempts, but he picked up the pace in the second half. He earned 19 points on 7-10 shooting with four of them being threes. He ended the game with a plus-37 on the night and a halftime talk by Hardaway was a motive for the senior guard.
“Basically, whoever not going hard gonna get pulled fast to set the tone for everybody,” Martin said. “Everybody responded well by trying to get more rebounds and more stops.”
The Rattlers held their own in the first half shooting 47.6 percent from the field and shot 62.5 percent from the three-point line. Kamron Reeves ended the game leading the team with 20 points on 5-11 shooting. This was FAMU’s third loss to the Tigers in their third all-time meeting.
Kareem Brewton Jr. got his first start of the season, replacing Antwann Jones Jr. who had 11 points and four rebounds, after performing well off the bench with 7.8 points per game shooting 51 percent from the field. Brewton didn’t take off offensively in the midday match up with only two points on 1-5 shooting, but he added 5 steals and four assists.
Memphis seemed to have the game in their pockets when they went on a 16-2 run midway through the second half. A key part to their dominance in the second half was taking more than double (17 compared to eight) of their three-point attempts in the first half.
The Tigers now look forward to their conference schedule starting with Wichita State (7-5) in their final home game of the month-long stretch.
“We’re 8-5 right now. We’re not really excited about that right now, but that’s the hand we gave ourselves” Hardaway said about heading into conference play. “I know a lot about this team right now.”
Jeremiah Martin guards opposing FAMU player. Martin had a second half surge to end the game with 22 points, eight assists and six steals.
