Memphis Women's Basketball walked into their home game against UTSA, who was 14-2 and undefeated in conference play, as a 13 point underdog according to Bart Torvik. They played their absolute hearts out, but fell short of knocking off the best team in the conference 70-68.
It was a close contest the whole way through, but it ended when Tanyuel Welch was called for tech for pushing a UTSA player who ran through the Memphis huddle which ultimately put the game out of reach for the Tigers. Here is the play in question
Although this controversy is what decided the game, there were plenty of other factors that went into the result. Despite Alasia Smith recording her fifth double-double of the season with 13 rebounds and 14 points, the Tigers finished -13 on the glass and gave up 21 second chance points.
Regardless of the result, it was still a phenomenal outing for a Memphis team that is still dealing with a plethora of injuries to their frontcourt and rotational pieces.
The game started off phenomenally for the Tigers, they shot 50% from the field in the first quarter while holding their opponents to just 36.8% and kept the defensive dominance going into the second period.
It would be in that quarter where UTSA shot an abysmal 2-15 and turned the ball over eight times. In those same ten minutes, Tilly Boler, who finished the game with 19 points on 7-14 shooting, was almost the only one on the court scoring to give the Tigers a 32-26 halftime lead.
The second half would see much more action, however. The third quarter featured a bit more defensive play, as Memphis scored the ball very ineffeciently, but they held the Roadrunners offense at bay long enough to take a one point lead headed into the final period.
The fourth quarter is where all of the madness reared its head. Memphis started hot out the gates, going on a 12-4 run highlighted by a four-point play by DeeDee Hagemann to put the Tigers up with 3:44 left to play. UTSA responded with a 10-2 run of their own to bring the game back within one possession with under a minute to go. It looked to be a great finish to a thrilling game...then the foul happened.
That call gave UTSA 2 free throws and an extra possession, which is all they needed to stave off the increasing momentum of the Tigers and the Roadrunners escaped with the win.
Memphis will be back at it on Jan. 18 on the road against Tulane.
