Tigers can’t hold off Cincinnati’s late push
It took just one word for Memphis coach Penny Hardaway to describe what has been missing from his team in its biggest games this season. "Toughness," Hardaway said. That was glaring in the Tigers' 69-64 loss to Cincinnati Thursday — a game where Memphis led for over 20 minutes but allowed the Bearcats to bully their way to a second-half lead despite shooting struggles.
But it wasn't necessarily surprising to the Tigers' coach.
"(Cincinnati) has been going to the NCAA Tournament for a while," Hardaway said.
"This group knows how to win, and every single minute and second they are on the floor they are going all out. It was going to make it hard on us because we haven't gotten to that level yet as a team."
That "level" was showcased by the first-place Bearcats' 12-0 second-half push that erased Memphis' six-point halftime lead.
From there, it was an uphill battle for the Tigers the rest of the way.
"When the game got back tied up, we needed to execute better," Hardaway said. "We didn't need to take bad shots, we didn't need to have live ball turnovers, and we needed to get stops. We just couldn't do it."
The end result was the first threegame losing streak of Hardaway's college coaching career, and another lesson learned from one of his team's most challenging opponents.
"The thing that you learn is, once the culture is built the way it is at Cincinnati and Houston – all the teams that are winning at a high level – they all believe in one thing: They want to win, they don't take themselves out of the game, they play team defense and they scrap every minute they're on the floor. We really aren't that team right now, but we will be."
Tigers tighten up on defense
Cincinnati opened the game on a tear, knocking down seven of its first eight 3-point attempts, but quickly cooled once the Tigers got settled on the defensive end.
The Bearcats didn't make a field goal in the final 7:07 of the first half, and finished the first 20 minutes with just one 2-point make.
The Tigers held coach Mick Cronin's team to 40 percent shooting and forced Cincinnati into an uncharacteristic 10 first-half turnovers, including four shot clock violations.
Cincinnati charges back
It took a spirited timeout from the Cincinnati coach early in the second half to finally kickstart his team.
"Basically, if I had to sub in, I was going to sub in," Cronin joked.
And once his Bearcats got going, it became increasingly more difficult for Memphis to get a stop.
The Bearcats continuously pushed their way to the free-throw line behind foul calls that frustrated the Memphis coaching staff and scored eight points on second-chance tries after offensive rebounds.
"They just kept going harder," Memphis forward Mike Parks Jr. said. "It seemed like their coach was saying, 'Every time the shot goes up, y'all better crash hard.' That's what they did, and some of our guys weren't there, or we didn't box out, and they got the rebounds."
It also didn't help that the Tigers hurt themselves with a five-second violation, missed free throws, defensive lapses that fueled the Bearcats' deciding 12-0 run late in the game. Martin wills a fast start Jeremiah Martin picked up right where he left off after his 41-point performance last Saturday against South Florida.
The senior leader willed his team to a quick start, knocking down his first four 3-point attempts of the game to help the Tigers keep pace with the Bearcats' lethal long-range shooting in the first five minutes.
In fact, it wasn't until almost 10 minutes into the game before the senior missed, while also adding a steal and two assists on the fastbreak that resulted in easy baskets.
The senior finished with 26 points and five assists Thursday.
Entering the game, Martin ranked ninth in the AAC in points per game (16.3) and sixth in assists per game (4.3).
The Tigers are just 1-3 in conference play when Martin scores more than 20 points.
"I gues it's unlucky, I don't know," Martin said. "I'm just going with the gameplan and taking shots I feel like I can (make). I feel like I'm helping the team no matter if we lose."