Memphis, Tenn—-Hardaway joins the ranks of legendary Memphis Tiger coaches who’ve won over 100-games with a 99-84 win over conference foe SMU. Hardaway becomes the seventh coach in Memphis history to reach the 100-win milestone. The Tigers improved to 16-5 overall and 6-2 in the American Athletic Conference (AAC).
by Don Mooney 1-26-2023
Fifth-year point guard Kendric Davis opened the scoring with a three-pointer and completed the night with a double double, scoring 25 points to go with 11 assists and seven rebounds. Redshirt-senior guard Keonte Kennedy added 16 points followed by senior Andre Williams 13 who filled the stat sheets with 13 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Davis with 16 points, nine assists and five rebounds in 19 minutes at the half orchestrated an offense that shot 54.3 percent (19-35) in the half with seven three-pointers and had six players with four or more points. Memphis outscored SMU 19-0 off the bench and only turned the ball over four times in the first period.
Memphis grew its advantage to as many as 29 points down the stretch en route to the 15-point win. The majority of the second half was played with a 20-point margin until the final minutes of the action when Coach Hardaway called off the dogs.
Memphis won the battle in the paint 44-28 and finished the game shooting 54.0 percent from the field (34-63). The Mustangs shot 36.6 percent from the floor (26-71). SMU (7-14, 2-6 AAC) was led by Zhuric Phelps’ 20 points in 22 minutes.
The Tigers hit the road, once again, for a 4 p.m. battle Sunday at Tulsa on ESPN2. They will then get nearly a full week of rest before returning to FedExForum on Saturday, Feb. 4 to host Tulane at 1 p.m., where they will retire Lorenzen Wright‘s jersey and handout bobbleheads of Larry Finch for his celebration game.