The Memphis Tigers basketball team got their season under way with an exhibition game against the Christian Brothers University Buccaneers. The Tigers handily defeated the Bucs 86-53.
The anticipated playing of every expected player on the team will have to wait. James Wiseman did not play in the game but is expected to play in the next exhibition game on Monday against the Lemoyne-Owen Magicians. Wiseman was held out because of an ankle injury.
In the first half, head coach Penny Hardaway went with five freshmen for the starting lineup: Precious Achiuwa, Damion Baugh, Boogie Ellis, DJ Jeffries and Lester Quinones were the starters. Baugh suffered a head injury in the first half and did not return to the game, but he did return to the bench.
Every player who suited up scored except Ryan Boyce. The Tigers were led by Achiuwa’s 22 points, four blocks and nine rebounds.
“This is the first time for me playing with the team against somebody else,” Precious said on his slow start, “I just let the game come to me. After the half, I evaluated my game and just went out there and just played.”
Jeffries had 12 points and hit a three-pointer the first points of the game.
“When I hit the three, there was a little relief for me and I said, ‘Let’s hoop!’” Jeffries said about his first points. “In the second half, we just brought more energy.”
Lance Thomas got his first action as a Tigers after sitting out last season when he transferred from Louisville. Thomas had 12 points, four blocks and four rebounds.
Hardaway was not happy with how the team started out. He blamed it on how they wanted to do so well in their first game, and they were so hyper. CBU stayed close with the Tigers in the first half. The score at the half was 42-33, Memphis.
Hardaway didn’t want to run and set plays for his team. He wanted to run a transition offense so they could get some mismatches and play from it. However, the team was not dynamic enough.
“Hopefully the guys are not coming out because of mental mistakes, they are coming out because of fatigue,” Hardaway said of his substitution choices. “With the energy we want to play with, guys are supposed to be tired after four or five minutes. Then you can sub someone else in and do that same thing.”
In the second half, Hardaway went to more of a set offense to generate some easy baskets. That’s also when the energy picked up – in the second half, CBU scored just four points through the first eight minutes of the half while the Tigers pulled away.
“It was more individuals in the first half and more team in the second half,” Hardaway said, “I took over the helms for a while to try to calm us down and things started to get better.”
Alex Lomax and Tyler Harris provided some stability after the slow start for the Tigers. Harris led the team with seven assists. Lomax scored 10 points to go with four steals and four assists.
Hardaway said this may the last year he plays two exhibition games. The NCAA allows teams to either play two exhibition games or two scrimmages against other division one teams. The scrimmages are closed to the public and to the media.
The Tigers will be back in action on Monday October 28 when they play their final exhibition game at 7 pm at the FedExForum against Lemoyne-Owen.
