Memphis Wins Conference Road Opener at Rice<\/p>\n
HOUSTON \u2013\u00a0Memphis picked up its first road win of the season Saturday afternoon, rallying from an early deficit and closing strong to defeat Rice, 76-70, at Tudor Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n
The Tigers improved to 7-7 overall and 2-0 in American Conference play, extending their winning streak to three games and opening league road play with a victory. Rice dropped its third-straight contest, falling to 6-9 overall and 0-2 in conference action.<\/p>\n
Dug McDaniel\u00a0led the way for Memphis with 18 points, stuffing the stat sheet with six rebounds, four assists and four steals. He scored 11 of his points after halftime as the Tigers erased a seven-point second-half deficit.\u00a0Sincere Parker\u00a0added 15 points and five rebounds, while\u00a0Aaron Bradshaw\u00a0was perfect from the floor, finishing 5-for-5 with 12 points before fouling out late.<\/p>\n
Memphis endured a disjointed first half marked by foul trouble and turnovers, allowing Rice to build a 13-point advantage midway through the period. The Owls capitalized on the Tigers\u2019 miscues to surge ahead 25-12 with just under eight minutes remaining before the break.<\/p>\n
Despite the sluggish start, Memphis steadied itself behind Bradshaw\u2019s interior presence and late defensive pressure. The Tigers closed the half on a 19-7 run as Rice cooled off, missing nine of its final 10 shots, to trail just 32-31 at intermission.<\/p>\n
Momentum carried over early in the second half. A 9-0 Memphis run wiped away a seven-point deficit and gave the Tigers a 40-38 lead with 16:50 remaining. McDaniel and\u00a0Hasan Abdul Hakim\u00a0fueled the surge, combining for 14 of Memphis\u2019 first 18 points after the break.<\/p>\n
Memphis stretched its lead to eight points with just over seven minutes to play, but Rice responded once more. The Owls clawed back within two, 62-60, with just over two minutes remaining, setting up another tight finish.<\/p>\n
This time, the Tigers delivered. Parker converted a driving layup,\u00a0Ashton Hardaway\u00a0followed with a put-back dunk and Memphis sealed the win at the free-throw line. After struggling at the stripe in its previous outing, Memphis bounced back by hitting 26 of 30 foul shots.<\/p>\n
Nick Anderson led Rice with 17 points and three steals. Trae Broadnax added 15 points and Cam Carroll chipped in 13.<\/p>\n
POSTGAME NOTES<\/p>\n
Starting Five:\u00a0Memphis opened with a starting lineup of\u00a0Dug McDaniel,\u00a0Zach Davis,\u00a0Ashton Hardaway, Aaron Bradshaw\u00a0and\u00a0Simon Majok. It is the third time this season that lineup has started. The other two times were in the Bahamas against Purdue and Wake Forest. Shooting:\u00a0Memphis shot 46.9 percent (23-of-49) from the floor and went 26-of-30 at the free throw line (85.7%). The Tigers hit just four three-pointers. The 26 makes at the stripe were a season high for the Tigers after going just 4-of-15 (26.7%) earlier in the week against North Texas. Turnovers:\u00a0Memphis committed 15 turnovers, which Rice converted into 20 points. Defense:\u00a0Memphis held Rice to 36.5 percent shooting (19-of-52) and forced 14 turnovers.The Tigers turned those miscues into 17 points. Bench Production:\u00a0Memphis got 33 points from its bench, compared to 15 from Rice.It marked the ninth game this season with 30+ bench points. Rebounding:\u00a0Memphis outrebounded Rice 38-31 and pulled down 13 offensive rebounds.The Tigers have now recorded nine or more offensive rebounds in 28 consecutive games, the 2nd-longest streak in Division I.Memphis scored 24 second-chance points. Ball Movement:\u00a0Memphis dished out 10 assists while committing 20 turnovers, it\u2019s the third-fewest dimes of the season for the Tigers. Dug McDaniel\u00a0scored a game-high 18 points with six rebounds, four assists and four steals in 36 minutes.All four of his steals came in the second half, with his first theft being No. 150 for his career. Sincere Parker\u00a0finished with 15 points, five rebounds and two blocks off the bench in 21 minutes. Aaron Bradshaw\u00a0recorded 12 points and four rebounds in 23 minutes.He was perfect from the field Saturday, going 5-of-5. Hasan Abdul Hakim\u00a0totaled 11 points, four rebounds, two assists and three steals in 27 minutes.Nine of his points came after halftime. Julius Thedford\u00a0contributed seven points and three rebounds, while\u00a0Ashton Hardaway\u00a0added five points and four boards. Zach Davis\u00a0swiped three steals.Memphis was whistled for 26 fouls in the win, its second-most of the season.<\/p>\n
UP NEXT
Memphis gets a brief break before returning to the road for a trip to Boca Raton to face Florida Atlantic on Sunday, Jan. 11, at noon central.<\/p>\n
Full coverage all this week on 92.9 FM ESPN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Memphis Wins Conference Road Opener at Rice HOUSTON \u2013\u00a0Memphis picked up its first road win of the season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[103,61,60,410,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-233610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}