Memphis basketball has tough loss at ECU
Memphis basketball needed a win. The shorthanded Tigers did not get it, with just six scholarship players to start the game and even fewer to finish it.
Six-foot-6 Brandon Suggs' gamewinning fadeaway jumper in front of Tyler Harris, who is 5-9, gave East Carolina a 72-71 victory at Minges Coliseum. The loss is Memphis' (9-7, 3-3 AAC) second in a row after losing a road game against UCF earlier this week.
The Pirates' (11-5, 2-2), who are undefeated at home this season (10-0), rallied from a 10-point deficit with 2:13 left in the game. Memphis led by as many as 19 points and led for more than 36 minutes.
The Tigers' loss further dims their postseason outlook. Penny Hardaway's team came into the game on the NCAA Tournament bubble, according to multiple bracketologists, and at No. 56 in the NCAA'S NET rankings. But what counts as a Quadrant 3 loss at the moment to ECU (146th in NET prior to its win Saturday) delivers a significant blow to Memphis' hopes of reaching March Madness without clinching the automatic bid by winning the AAC Tournament in March.
Freshman center Jalen Duren's 15 points paced the Tigers, who also put five other players in double figures. Suggs and Vance Jackson led the Pirates with 17 points apiece.
Here are three takeaways from Saturday's contest.
From bad to worse
Memphis was facing dire straits before the game started.
But an already dicey injury situation got even worse Saturday. That's when Landers Nolley II (knee) and Jayden Hardaway (knee) were added to the list of players unavailable for duty, joining Deandre Williams, Alex Lomax and Chandler Lawson.
Making matters worse, freshman forward Josh Minott was ejected midway through the second half for leaving the bench during a scuffle between the Tigers and Pirates. Minott was disqualified after scoring 12 points, four rebounds, four assists, three blocks and two steals.
Memphis finished with seven players in uniform (five on scholarship), including freshman walk-on Tadarius Jacobs, and two of them (Malcolm Dandridge and Earl Timberlake, who returned from concussion after missing the game against UCF) found themselves in foul trouble with four fouls apiece.
Free throws … again
The Tigers have long had issues at the free throw line. That hasn't changed this season. In the loss at UCF this week, Memphis was just 6-of-18 at the stripe.
Those problems showed up again Saturday. Memphis was 4-of-11 from the
line against the Pirates, but just 3 for 8 in the second half.
With 1:13 remaining in the game and the Tigers leading 70-67, Harris missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and 14 seconds later, ECU'S Vance Jackson drained a 3pointer to tie the game.
Then, with 14 seconds left on the clock, Lester Quinones sank his first free throw to put Memphis up 71-70. But his second attempt rimmed out and ECU capitalized to pull off the upset.
Emoni Bates loud early, quiet late
Emoni Bates' arrival in Memphis was preceded by all the hype Fedexforum can hold. So far this season, however, the 17-year-old has struggled to live up to the lofty expectations attached to his reputation. On Saturday, the 6-9 wing showed he can still play with the best of them. Bates started fast, giving the Tigers
a 4-0 lead by himself with a jumper and a layup 65 seconds into the game. His early work quieted an ECU student section of reportedly more than 1,000 that greeted Bates in the opening seconds of the game with ever-popular chants of “O-VER-RA-TED!”
It was a 66-second stretch, though, later in the first half that gave Memphis a sizeable cushion and all but silenced the ECU fans in attendance. Bates knocked down back-to-back-to-back 3pointers, the last one putting the Tigers ahead 34-15 with 6:51 remaining before halftime.
That final 3-pointer was the last bucket and the final points for Bates, who tweaked an ankle after landing awkwardly while going up for a rebound. He took just three more shots the rest of the game.
Bates finished with 13 points. Harris also scored 13 points, making three 3pointers to tie Jeremy Hunt for fifth on the school's all-time list with 167.
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.