Memphis holds off Furious Golden Hurricane Comeback Attempt

Tuesday, January 4

Memphis, TN

8:00 PM

Tulsa

6-7,0-2AAC

Memphis

8-5,2-1AAC

Tulsa

Memphis

Photo by: (Joe Murphy/American Athletic Conference)

Memphis holds off Furious Golden Hurricane Comeback Attempt

1/4/2022 11:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BOX SCORE

MEMPHIS, Tenn. –– Darien Jackson's half-court shot at the buzzer just missed as the University of Tulsa dropped a heartbreaker 67-64 to the University of Memphis in front of 12,863 fans at the FedExForum on Tuesday evening.

Tulsa dropped to 6-7 and 0-2 in the American Athletic Conference, while Memphis improved to 8-5 (2-1 AAC).

"We dug ourselves a hole in the beginning of the second half," head coach Frank Haith said. "We just gave them too many plays early in the ball game. There in the second half, we missed some assignments on defense. They threw the ball in the side and kind of attacked us. We didn't have any resistance in there."

Sam Griffin led all scorers with 25 points and tied his season-high with five 3-pointers. He scored 16 of his 25 in the second half, shooting 75.0 percent (6-8) from the field and 66.7 percent (4-6) from deep in the second 20 minutes. Horne also finished with 20 points to go along with four rebounds.

Nikita Konstantynovskyi made his first start as a Golden Hurricane. The sophomore center played 17 minutes and battled for eight rebounds, four on each side of the floor. Rey Idowu put in a nine-point, seven-rebound performance.

Earl Timberlake and Lester Quinones paced the Tigers with 12 points and 11 points respectively. Josh Minott had seven points to go with a game-high 11 rebounds.

The Tigers outshot the Hurricane 46.2 percent to 38.9 percent, while Tulsa was good on 32.1 percent of its threes (9-28) to the Tigers' 29.4 percent (5-17). The Hurricane were outrebounded 38-31 and allowed more points in the paint to the tune of 36-20. Tulsa turned it over a season-high 19 times, while Memphis had 22 turnovers. Both teams scored 22 points off turnovers.

For the second game in a row, Tulsa found itself facing a large second-half deficit. The Tigers held a 34-25 lead at the break and went on a 12-3 run to start the second, capped with a layup at the 15:46 mark to give Memphis its largest lead of the night at 46-28.

With 9:38 to play, the Memphis lead was 15, 52-37. A 3-pointer from Griffin cut it to 12, and then Horne made it a 10-point game with a pair of free throws. However, the Hurricane couldn't get to single digits as Memphis pushed its advantage to 13 three more times. A Memphis 3-pointer brought the score to 61-48 at the 4:37 mark.

From there, Tulsa began its final push, hitting on six of its eight final field goals. Horne knocked down pull-up three off Anthony Pritchard's dime, one of his seven assists. Idowu converted an and-one the next possession. Idowu was a perfect 5-5 from the foul line, making three attempts in the final four minutes.

Horne made it a six-point ballgame, 65-59, when he was good on another pull-up 3-pointer with a little more than two minutes left. Neither team would score again until Sam Griffin drove to the hoop and made a layup with 20 seconds to play.

Memphis missed on both free throw attempts and a drive and kick from Pritchard found Griffin open for three in the corner, bringing Tulsa within one, 65-64 with 2.9 seconds to play. Memphis knocked down both of its foul shots, giving Tulsa one last look, which bounced off the side of the rim.

"I thought we had some good execution in the last three minutes" Haith said. "We talked about that improvement and not settling. We got to the basket, and we got to the free throw line during that stretch."

Tulsa started the game with a 10-0 run, hitting on its first three shots. The Hurricane defense played a part in four straight Tiger turnovers to open the game.

After the hot start, Tulsa struggled from the field, connecting on only six of its remaining 24 shots in the half, finishing 33.3 percent from the field (9-27). Memphis shot 47.8 percent (11-23) in the first.

After falling behind early, the Tigers responded with an 18-3 run to take the lead 18-13 at the 8:30 juncture. A Griffin three ended the run, but Memphis scored the next seven, advancing the lead to 10, 25-15, with 4:35 to play in the first half.

Tulsa would eventually get the lead to six with back-to-back jumpers from Griffin with less than a minute remaining before a 3-pointer from the Tigers made it the halftime score of 34-25.

Both teams struggled with turnovers in the opening half, combining for 26. The Hurricane entered the night averaging 11.3 turnovers per game but had 12 in the first 20 minutes. Memphis led the steals battle 9-8 in the first half.

The Hurricane will stay on the road as Tulsa travels to Orlando, Fla. to take on the UCF Knights this Saturday. Tipoff is set for 1:00 p.m. and the matchup will air on ESPNU.