Memphis finishes second place in the loaded Maui Invitational after falling victim to a dominant Auburn performance, where the other Tigers convincingly won the Maui Invitational Title Game 90-76.
Auburn has been by far the best team in the country to start this season, ranking 1st in KenPom and Strength of Record, and they own three top 12 wins in this young season. Memphis just ran into a team that is better than them.
Auburn controlled this game from the gun, opening up on a 9-0 run. They built the lead to as much as 22 in this game, in what was a wire-to-wire victory
Auburn won this game with their bigs tonight, who vastly outclassed Memphis’ trio of Dain Dainja, Moussa Cisse, and Nicholas Jourdain.
Early favorite for National Player of the Year Johni Broome led this effort, with 21 points, 16 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 blocks, and a steal. He became the first Division I player over the last 15 years with at least 20 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 assists in consecutive games, per Jared Berson. At halftime, he had more assists and more rebounds than the entire Memphis Tigers’ team.
Dylan Cardwell also threw in a career performance tonight, with a career high of 18 points on a perfect 8/8 shooting.
Cisse, Dainja, and Jourdain combined for just 21 points and 10 rebounds.
The big statistic of the night was the rebounding, as Auburn had Memphis doubled up in rebounding at halftime, up 22-11 on the boards, which helped them build that 16-point halftime lead.
“Our weaknesses showed up today. They exposed us on the glass,” said Penny Hardaway after the game.
Memphis’ advantage of 3-point shooting was also taken away from them today, largely due to Auburn’s length on the perimeter.
While the Tigers shot 6/9 from deep, the fact that they were only able to get up 9 shots from beyond the arc speaks to the job Auburn did on them.
Tyrese Hunter, after exploding in the first two Maui games, was held to a modest 11 points on 4/10 shooting, and went scoreless in the first half.
PJ Haggerty was the brightest star tonight for Memphis, scoring 27 points. Auburn was perfectly fine with Haggerty driving and scoring in the paint and tended to not over help to keep Memphis’ 3-point shooting at bay.
While this game was obviously not the desired outcome, the players and Hardaway kept a great perspective on the week that was after the game.
“To get to the championship, not knowing each other, not being in the battle before until this weekend, with the best teams in the country, I’m really proud of the effort and looking forward to getting back to practice after Thanksgiving,” said Hardaway. “We didn’t take care of business today, but we learned a lot from this entire weekend and saw that we belong.”
Colby Rogers echoed that sentiment postgame as well.
“I think we have a lot of confidence… To make it to the championship against two top 5 teams, that’s something to really hang your head up about. I don’t think we should leave here hanging our heads down… We just have to make sure we learn from this, grow from this, and just don’t let this carry on for too long. It’s just one game and we have a long season ahead of us,” said Rogers.
On a disappointing day, Memphis can still hold its head high for the week that was. A week that saw them beat the back-to-back national champion. A week that saw them defeat basketball legend Tom Izzo. And a week that saw them make it to the Maui Invitational Title Game for the first time in six tries.
As Hardaway asserted, “We’re only going to get better.” If that’s true, then there will be a fun, exciting winter and spring of Memphis Tigers basketball ahead.
