Seventh-year Memphis coach Penny Hardaway spoke with some emotion after Sunday’s 88-81 win at UAB moved the Tigers to the brink of the American Athletic Conference regular-season title.
“To be able to win this for the school, for the city, is phenomenal because we knew the city knew we needed this game,” he said. “The energy that goes into these games — it’s just an unbelievable feeling right now.”
No. 16 Memphis and Hardaway will look to take that feeling to another level Tuesday night in another AAC road test against UTSA in San Antonio.
A win clinches no worse than a share of the league title and the top seed in next week’s conference tournament since the Tigers beat North Texas, who sit in second place, in the teams’ only regular-season matchup in early January.
It didn’t look good for a while for Memphis (24-5, 14-2) in Birmingham. The Blazers led by 11 in the first half and by nine at one stage in the second half. But the Tigers got the game even heading into the last five minutes and then went on a game-clinching 13-1 run.
PJ Haggerty delivered a game-high 25 points, while Colby Rogers got hot from the 3-point line (five makes) and added 21. Dain Dainja continued his recent stretch of dominant play inside with 16 points and 17 rebounds, giving him an average of 21 points and 12.7 boards in the last three games. He was named AAC Player of the Week on Monday.
On paper, Memphis seems like a prohibitive favorite against the Roadrunners (11-17, 5-11), who had lost six straight before routing Rice 84-56 at home on Sunday. But Hardaway vowed the Tigers won’t take the league’s 11th-place team for granted.
“Now it’s two games to go and we’re staying right there,” he said. “We know that UTSA is very capable and we’re staying locked in. Every game for us is a must-win anyway.”
If the Roadrunners are to have a chance at a mammoth upset, they’ll probably need a big game from shooting guard Primo Spears. Playing for his fourth school in as many years, Spears is averaging a career-high 20 points and 3.8 assists per game. He’s coming off a 25-point outing against Rice that saw him make 6 of 9 3-pointers.
UTSA has some strengths despite its record. It has four players scoring in double figures, is the third-best foul shooting team in Division I at 81.3 percent and makes a solid 35.9 percent from the 3-point line.
Marcus Millender also scored 25 points on Sunday, adding seven assists as well. Millender and 3-point sniper Damari Monsanto are capable of lighting up any defense from behind the arc. But the Roadrunners play poor first-shot defense, allowing 46.5 percent from the field, and are being outrebounded by more than five per game.
First-year coach Austin Claunch said UTSA has actually been closer to success than the record indicates.
“You don’t feel like you’re close, you feel like you’re there,” Claunch said. “You just have to make one more play.”
–Field Level Media
