The starting lineup for the Memphis Tigers’ basketball team is never set in stone. There was another change to the starting lineup against the Temple Owls. Damion Baugh was reinserted into the starting lineup – his first start since Jan. 9 at Wichita State.
It worked out – Memphis took care of business Wednesday, defeating Temple 79-65 at the FedexForum in front of 15,685.
“It is not always pretty, but the boys find a way to get spurts in there to push away and get a lead,” said Tigers head coach Penny Hardaway. “Today was good for us, because we found a way to put a team away. They hung around a little bit, but it wasn’t as desperate as it has been in the past.”
Memphis quickly fell behind the Owls 6-0, but quickly went on a 7-0 run to take the lead back. Temple threw a mixture of defenses at the Tigers to try to get Memphis out of an offensive rhythm.
“We wanted to keep the crowd out of it,” said Temple head coach Aaron McKie. “We wanted to take care of and rebound the ball.”
And the defenses may have slowed down the Tigers, but it wasn’t able to contain them.
“We knew they were going to do that. They got into presses and zones,” Hardaway said. “The guys panicked a little bit against their full-court pressure, but other than that I am really happy with these young guys. They are learning on the fly.”
Memphis went into the half with a 33-25 lead, holding Temple to just 27 percent shooting in the first half. Memphis turned the basketball over nine times in the first half, but only two of those turnovers led directly to baskets.
Memphis made 6 of 16 baskets from three-point range. Boogie Ellis continues to play well offensively, making 2 of 4 from three-point range to finish with 6 points in the first half. Lester Quiñones Jr. led all scorers with 12 first-half points, including 3 of 6 from three-point range.
Memphis opened its largest lead of the game in the second half, at 46-35. Temple made a quick 6-0 run, but the Tigers were not phased. They kept their composure and with a monster dunk by Achiuwa and a three-pointer was the shot clock was expiring helped push the Memphis lead to back up to 15 points with 8 minutes remaining.
Memphis played smart basketball in the second part of the second half. They did not allow the Owls to mount any type of offensive spark and the Tigers scored efficiently on most of their possessions. The Tigers only had seven turnovers in the second half.
Hardaway has been using pushups in practice to encourage this team to reduce the turnovers. Achiuwa hinted that was the reason for the reduced turnovers. But Quiñones had a different take.
“The limited turnovers was a result of us being calm,” he said. “We were finding the open man once we got across half court. We have been practicing if they double us to hit the open man to get an easy bucket. I feel we are a way better team as far as beating the press.”
Memphis had very balanced scoring. Memphis had three players in double digits scoring: Quiñones (21), Ellis (18) and Achiuwa (13). Memphis had two other players with nine points each (Malcolm Dandridge and Lance Thomas). Achiuwa had 10 rebounds and two blocks. Thomas had two blocks. Hardaway was most proud of the balanced scoring attack of his team.
“We shared the basketball,” Hardaway said. “We had three guys in double figures and two guys with nine. That is refreshing to see the guys playing together and sharing the basketball.”
Temple was led by Quinton Rose and Nate Pierre-Louis each had 13 points. Alani Moore II finished 11 points. The Owls were held to 34.9 shooting from the floor.
“On the offensive end, we just wanted to move,” said McKie. “We didn’t want to take quick shots. We wanted to move the ball side to side to make those guys have to work. That helps you with floor balance. If the ball is not going in, then it could be really difficult. Then you are putting so much pressure on your defense, if your offense is not working. For a young team you can lose a lot of confidence behind that.”
Memphis improves to (17-5 and 6-3 in the American). Memphis is tied for fourth place in the conference with SMU. Memphis entered the day with a NCAA net ranking of 50. After the game, most likely the Tigers will not move up, but more importantly they will not fall.
The Tigers are projected in the NCAA field as an 11-seed currently in two of the most popular projection models (ESPN and CBS Sports). Memphis has several opportunities to move up in the rankings in the next couple of weeks.
The Tigers will end their three-game homestand on Sat. Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. CT when The University of South Florida comes to town. Memphis defeated USF 68-64 in Tampa on January 12.
