by Don Mooney
Memphis, Tenn— University of Houston junior point guard Jamal Shead scored 16 points, including the winning basket as time ran out, and top-ranked Houston escaped a second-half rally by Memphis for a 67-65 win Sunday inside FedExForum in the regular-season finale for both teams.
After Kendric Davis tied the game up at 65 on a driving layup with eight seconds to play, the Cougars’ Jamal Shead got a pull-up jumper to fall as the horn sounded in front of a sold-out crowd of 18,437 at the Forum.
With the setback, the Tigers end the regular season with an overall record of 23-8 and a mark of 13-5 in American Athletic Conference (AAC) play. Houston improved to 29-2 on the season and 17-1 in league action.
Memphis’ Kendric Davis drove to the basket with nine seconds left and tied the game at 65. Houston chose not to call time out. Shead then maneuvered along the top of the key, created some space from defender Elijah McCadden with a step-back move, let it go from about 18 feet and saw the ball nestle through the net as the lights around the basket showed time had expired.
“I knew coach (Kelvin Sampson) wouldn’t call time out because we’ve been in that situation before and he trusts me,” Shead said, adding: “God willing, I was able to make that shot.” Sampson said there was too much time left to call time out after Davis tied the game, noting that it also would have allowed Memphis coach Penny Hardaway to make adjustments, put in better defensive players and switch on all ball-screens. “The difference is we had them in retreat,” Sampson said. “When you get them back on their heels, then you can get a good shot.”
From the outset it seemed Tigers were in for a long night. Defensively the plan seemed to get the ball out of Davis’ and Williams hand and make the others beat them. Tigers fought back with good bench play.
Big man Malcolm Dandridge showed up big with nine points, seven rebounds and two blocks in 28 minutes off the bench.
Davis stepped up on the brightest stage with a game-high 26 points after going 11-of-12 at the line. Chandler Lawson added 10 points, including a pair of big three-pointers in the second half, to go with five rebounds. Cougars defensive suffocated Tiger star forward DeAndre Williams limiting him to a season low of 8 pts.
The Tigers couldn’t keep pace with Houston’s 3-point shooting, and the Cougars were up 41-32 at half. Memphis made four 3s before the midway point of the second half and took its first lead, 48-47, with 13 minutes left in the game.
“I had a bad game plan in the first half, and I’ll put this on my back,” Hardaway said. “My guys fought for me. Got back in the game. Had a chance to win. Held them to 26 points in the second half. We’ll just try to do better next time.”
Sampson was complimentary of the Memphis crowd despite the 11 a.m. local time start, reeling off the litany of other places the Cougars had played on the road this season. “This is the most raucous,” he said of the FedExForum crowd. “I can’t imagine what they would have been like if this had been a 5 (p.m.) game. Let them get a little Beale Street in them.” He added that with 11 a.m. tip, “some of them might have come from church.”
Memphis will head to Fort Worth, Texas, as the No. 2 seed in the AAC Tournament on March 9-12 at Dickies Arena.