DALLAS — Penny Hardaway asked his Memphis basketball team for one thing against SMU Sunday.
“Just fight,” he said he told the Tigers after Thursday’s loss at North Texas.
He didn’t get it. Instead, the Tigers got humiliated by the Mustangs, falling 106-79 at Moody Coliseum in front of a national television audience. SMU (19-7, 10-3 AAC) dominated Memphis (18-8, 7-6) up one side of the court and down the other from bell to bell.
Like a freight train on a tight schedule, the Mustangs steamrolled the Tigers early, to the tune of 58 first-half points. And Rob Lanier’s team kept the hammer down the rest of the way.
The newest nightmare in Memphis’ weekslong horror movie – which featured a resounding “triple digits” chant from the student section in the closing minutes – was not unexpected. SMU was a 4.5-point favorite and came into the game riding a five-game winning streak. Even though the Tigers beat the Mustangs in their contest at FedExForum on Jan. 7, both programs have been on opposite planes the last few weeks.
So, with Memphis’ NCAA tournament at-large outlook already on the verge of flatlining, Hardaway’s team fell flat on its face – leading ESPN’s broadcast crew to ponder whether the Tigers had quit with more than 15 minutes left in the game, which featured the debut of walk-on guard Joe Cooper.
Now, with five games remaining in the regular season, Hardaway and Co. have all but guaranteed that they have to win the AAC tournament next month in Fort Worth if they want to make a third straight NCAA tournament appearance.
Here are three observations from Sunday’s contest.
Getting out of hand early
SMU punched first and never stopped.
Memphis, meanwhile, remained careless with the basketball. After turning the ball over 15 times against the Mean Green, the Tigers committed 19 more, including nine in the first half.
Equally as troubling, SMU owned Memphis in the rebounding battle. The Mustangs had a staggering 14 offensive rebounds in the first half, which led to a stunning 17 second-chance points.
On the other end of the spectrum was Memphis, who equaled its turnover tally with a grand total of nine rebounds in the first half.
Simplifying the offense
The Tigers never led in Sunday’s game. The best run they could muster was a 6-0 push early in the second half that cut the Mustangs’ 62-36 lead to 62-42.
So, trailing 29-20 with under six minutes left in the first half, Memphis made things really simple. Hardaway put the ball in leading scorer David Jones’ hands and told everyone else to move out of the way.
Jones responded by taking each of the next nine field goal attempts for Memphis, making six of them for a total of 15 points over a 4-minute, 33-second span. There was only one problem: the Tigers’ defense went into the tank. While Jones was cooking on offense, SMU’s lead went from 29-20 to 55-35.
Jones finished with 33 points. Nae’Qwan Tomlin added 17 points.
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SMU’s offense
Ricardo Wright came into Sunday’s game averaging fewer than 5 points per game.
But, against Memphis, he dropped 26. Zhuric Phelps, the Mustangs’ leading scorer, put up 18. And three more registered double-digits for SMU.
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: SMU thrashes Memphis basketball in Tigers’ latest loss
