The Memphis Tigers improved to 3-0 on the season with a 94-70 victory over the Ohio Bobcats, heavy preseason favorite in the MAC.
Memphis won this game thanks to a scorching shooting night from deep, finishing 13/18 (72.2%) from behind the arc. ”That’s a coach's dream to be able to shoot the ball like that,” said Head Coach Penny Hardaway after the game.
After this performance, Memphis now has the best 3-point percentage in the country for this season, at 49.1%.
The Tigers were led by starting guards PJ Haggerty and Tyrese Hunter, after both did not practice all week due to nagging injuries. Haggerty had 23 points and 7 rebounds, while Hunter had 21 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals. The two combined to shoot 8/10 from deep.
“I think we handled it well,” said Haggerty after the game.
Nicholas Jourdain was the only other Tiger in double figures, finishing with 15 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks on the night. He has shot 10/11 from the field in his past two performances.
“He’s our Draymond Green for our team,” said Hunter about Jourdain after the game, referencing his grit, "switchability" on defense, and excellent job playing his role.
Fast Start (Haggerty included)
After two slow starts to begin the season against Missouri and UNLV, Memphis flipped the script, opening up the game up 18-4 and hitting 7 of their first 8 threes.
This included PJ Haggerty, who has only scored 16 of his 54 points on the season in the first half coming into this game. However, he scored 15 points in the first 12:48 of play on 5/5 shooting and 4/4 from behind the arc. He finished the first half with 17 points.
Ohio Heats Up
After starting 0/7 from 3 and falling down 14 points almost instantly, Ohio hit their next 7 3’s, including 4 from their leading scorer of the night, Ajay Sheldon, who finished with 20 points on 6/10 shooting from 3.
Ohio also got back into this game thanks to sloppy play by the Tigers, who turned the ball over 11 times in the first half. At half, even with Memphis shooting a blistering 8/12 from 3 and 15/27 from the field, Ohio found themselves only down 5 thanks to their own hot shooting and help from Memphis’ lackadaisical play.
Memphis Closes it Out
After letting Ohio back into the game, Memphis quickly opened the second half on a 12-2 run to extend the lead to 15, and kept Ohio at arms length for much of the game after. Ohio never seriously threatened to win the game and only got as close as 7 points.
Memphis put the game away with a 18-3 run that included a barrage of Tyrese Hunter 3’s and assists to put them up 24 with 2:40 to go, after only being up 69-60 with 6:59 to go and the Tigers being threatened to have to make high pressure plays late to win the game.
As Hardaway put it after the game, “When the chips are down, we just fight harder.”
In the second half, after turning it over 11 times in the first half, the Tigers only turned it over 3 times in the second half, and forced 10 Ohio turnovers in the second half. Hardaway credits the defensive focus of this team, and points out how much further along this team is compared to last season’s woeful defensive team.
”Last year at this time we had no defenses in. Right now we already have 5 defenses in, 1 zone and 4 presses” said Hardaway.
The game closed with walk-on and former Tennessee AAA Mr. Basketball Damarien Yates scoring his first points of his Tiger career, with a mid-range jumper and a 3-pointer in the final minute of the game.
What’s Next
Memphis will play on the road against San Francisco Thursday night before heading to the best regular season tournament of every season, the Maui Invitational. They will open up play there on Monday November 25 against the two-time defending national champion, UConn Huskies.
