MOVING ON
Memphis advances to NIT quarterfinals by beating Dayton
The Memphis basketball team extended its season on the strength of a productive and efficient second half, eliminating Dayton from the National Invitation Tournament with a 71-60 win.
Landers Nolley II was one of four Tigers (17-8) in double-figure scoring with 21 points, and Lester Quinones added 15. Memphis advances to face Boise State in the quarterfinal round at 8 p.m. Thursday (ESPN) at the UNT Coliseum in Denton, Texas.
The Tigers held Dayton's leading scorer and Memphis native Jalen Crutcher to six points in his final game in a Flyers uniform. Dayton's season ends at 14-10.
“(Dayton) made us think in the first half,” Memphis coach Penny Hardaway said. “They got into that 1-1-3 zone and kind of mixed it up a little bit. Disguised their man coverage. Second half, we kind of figured it out and played
better defense and got a great victory.”
Here are five takeaways from Saturday's game:
Strong second-half
Memphis trailed 28-27 entering the second half.
But the Tigers kicked their game into high gear after halftime, and it started at the 3-point line. After hitting just three of its first 15 3-pointers, Memphis went 7-for-11 over the final 20 minutes.
The Tigers shot 31.4% in the first half and 58.6% in the second.
“I think (our players) just settled their nerves,” Hardaway said. “I think everybody comes out trying to do too much at one time. But sometimes it kind of backfires on us. When we gather our nerves and kind of settle down, everybody starts to understand the flow of the game, and things start to work a lot better for us. I think that's what happened, our flow just got a lot better.”
High-volume shooting
Before the game, Memphis coach Penny Hardaway identified two key factors to beating Dayton: shot attempts and assists.
Hardaway wanted the Tigers to attempt at least 70 field goals and finish with 20 or more assists.
The aggressive, unselfish approach was on display from the outset. Memphis had 64 shot attempts and 18 assists.
Lester Quinones all over the place
Quinones scored all of his 15 points after halftime. He also led all players with 10 rebounds, the second time in the last three games he collected doubledigit boards.
Quinones was 5-for-7 from the field, 3-for-5 from three and made 2 of 2 at free throws.
Landers Nolley not shy
Seldom one to turn down an opportunity to take a shot, Nolley entered Saturday trending in a hesitant direction.
The Virginia Tech transfer, in his first season with the Tigers, entered with 250 field goal attempts – 47 more than Boogie Ellis, who has the second-most on the team.
But over the six games leading up to the NIT, Nolley's shot-taking had slowed, as he averaged eight per game. In Memphis' AAC Tournament semifinal loss to Houston last week, Nolley attempted a season-low three field goals.
All of that seemed like a distant memory Saturday. Nolley took seven of Memphis' first 11 shots against Dayton,
making four of them. He finished with 20 field goal attempts, twice as many as the player with the next-most, Deandre Williams.
Nolley's 21 points were his most since scoring 18 against UCF on Feb. 3.
Owning the glass
The Tigers made the most of their size advantage against Dayton, outrebounding the Flyers 44-26.
Most impressive, however, was the job Memphis did on the offensive end. The Tigers finished with 17 offensive rebounds and held the Flyers to just two. Quinones led the way with six and Malcolm Dandridge grabbed four.
That led to Memphis ending the
game with a 12-0 advantage in secondchance points.
“You crash the glass like that, like Lester was doing, like Malcolm was doing, like Deandre was doing, like D.J. was doing – those guys were all over the glass – it's a huge advantage for us, because it adds to our points and gives us second opportunities,” Hardaway said. “We've seen Houston do it to us and we've learned from that.”
The rebounding dominance was a change from recent weeks. In the three games leading into the NIT, that followed, Memphis got beat on the boards twice – both by No. 6 Houston.
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.