Davis guides Tigers to gutty win in return to SMU
DALLAS — Kendric Davis made SMU’S Moody Coliseum his own personal stomping grounds for three seasons.
On Thursday, the dynamite Davis — now nightmare fuel for Memphis basketball opponents — marched into the familiar building and made himself right at home.
Davis and the Tigers (23-7, 13-4 AAC) weathered an intense thunderstorm that barreled through the Dallas area before tipoff (which prompted Moody Coliseum to spring a few pregame leaks) and a game Mustang squad to pick up a 81-62 victory. In doing so, Memphis secured the No. 2 seed at next week’s AAC Tournament. The win also sets up a seismic showdown between Penny Hardaway’s Tigers and Houston, the No. 1 team in the country.
Davis put up 23 points, which went along with 10 assists and four steals. Damaria Franklin gave the Tigers 15 points of support, while Deandre Williams scored 13, marking his 26th straight game in double-digits.
Memphis’ 23rd victory is the most in one season under Hardaway and the most since the team won 24 games in 2013-14.
Senior guard Alex Lomax and senior center Kaodirichi Akobundu-ehiogu did not play.
Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s game:
Chandler Lawson’s second half
Things weren’t going all that well in the first half for Memphis in the rebounding department, trailing 16-13 on the glass at the break.
Then, Chandler Lawson took over for the Tigers. The senior hauled in nine of his career-high tying 12 rebounds in the second half. That helped give Memphis a 23-17 advantage over the final 20 minutes.
Lawson also contributed five points to the winning effort, along with three blocks.
Better ball movement
Memphis came into Thursday’s game having won 10 of its last 12. The losses were a one-point setback against Tulane and a 72-64 decision at Houston.
But the Tigers still had kinks in need of ironing out.
Specifically, Hardaway’s team had fallen into a slump of sorts when it came to sharing the ball. In its last four games, Memphis’ assist totals had taken a dip, averaging just 10.3 per game.
The Tigers addressed that in short order against SMU, racking up 15 in the first half alone. Davis was a big part of that first-half success, as he notched seven before the game was 20 minutes old.
Memphis finished with 21 assists, four short of tying the season-high.
Early box-out problems
One thing SMU did that could have made life very difficult for Memphis — had the Mustangs defended better and not turned the ball over as much — was control the offensive glass.
Rob Lanier’s team gave the Tigers fits in that department, and it allowed the Mustangs to hang around. Up 56-50 with 15:01 left in the game, Memphis had given up 12 offensive boards to that point. And SMU capitalized with 21 second-chance points, which was made worse by the fact that the Tigers had just one second-chance point through the first 25 minutes of the game.
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.