Jeremiah Martin, senior guard, led the Memphis Tigers (6-5) to an aching 99-89 win over the Little Rock Trojans (5-7). The Tigers continued their month-long home stand in front of a crowd of 13,599 fans. Martin had a comeback game with 22 points, six rebounds and four assists.
“All of our players need to understand that we can’t take anyone lightly,” head coach Penny Hardaway said. “We were 5-5 heading into the game. We have to come out swinging.”
This was the seventh all-time meeting between the schools, and Memphis won the previous six meetings, seventh tonight. The Tigers defeated the Trojans 70-62 last year in Memphis Also, for what could be good luck for them, the previous four out of five times the Tigers have faced the Trojans, Memphis earned a postseason berth later on in the season. (1 National Invitational Tournament/3 NCAA Tournaments)
The first half was neck-and neck between both teams with 10 lead changes and four times when they were tied. The Tigers had a slow start with some miscommunication and turnovers but held the lead for 13 minutes. Nearing the final minutes of the half, the Tigers got on a nine-point scoring run with 4:44 minutes to go and earned a 13-point lead with Little Rock finished the half making only two out of their last nine field goals.
What kept the Trojans within reach was a strong three-point shooting first half. They shot 57.1 percent from three (8-14) with Rayjon Tucker, guard, leading the team in the first half with 10 points while shooting 3-5 from the arc.
The second half saw the Tigers to struggle again with them getting to early foul trouble, and it led to Little Rock getting in the double bonus halfway through the second half. Memphis also had 11 of their 21 turnovers in the second half with led to 13 points for the Trojans. Memphis held their own till there was 3:52 left to play where Little Rock made an and-one opportunity to regain the lead 86-84. After that, the Memphis defense was able to allow only three free throws made and zero field goals till the end of the game.
While the Tigers did dominate the boards with more than double the amount of rebounds, 49 to 23, compared to the Trojans, they weren’t able to put the game away earlier. Their transition defense was mostly absent as they allowed 38 fast break points and 23 points off of turnovers. Hardaway mentioned the team's struggle to show improvement on their defense from practice.
"Our transition defense was horrible," Hardaway said. "We work on this stuff, but it doesn't look like it, but we work on it. We just got to carry it over from practice onto the floor.
A bright spot of the win was Antwann Jones also started his first game of the season after a good effort against Tennessee, and he was an aid for the defense on the night and added 13 points, five rebounds and six assists. Kyvon Davenport, senior guard who earned another double-double on the year with 15 points and 15 rebounds off the bench, added some praise for Jones.
“He’s capable of doing a lot on the floor. He’s very talented,” Davenport said. “He hasn’t showed everything he can do, and it’s still a lot he has to learn, but he’s a good player.”
The Hardaway-led Tigers now head to game number five of the home-stand as they face the Tennessee State University Tigers. (3-7) on Saturday. The game is scheduled to tip-off at 2 p.m.
Jeremiah Martin leaps past a South Dakota State defender for a shot. Martin tied for a team high in points, with Tyler Harris, with 22 points.
