University of Memphis Athletics
Tuesday, December 29
Memphis, Tenn.
12 pm CT
University of Memphis
9-3, 1-0American
77
vs
65
Tulane
7-7, 0-1American
1
2
F
Tulane
37
28
65
Memphis
35
42
77
Team Stats
TLN
MEM
FG%
.353
.397
3FG%
.333
.333
FT%
.706
.818
RB
44
39
TO
17
9
STL
5
9
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
21
FGM
9
3FGM
3
FTM
0
Pts
17
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
7
Pts
16
FGM
5
3FGM
2
FTM
4
Pts
15
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
5
Players Mentioned
G/F
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballG/F
/ Men's Basketball
Photo by: Joe Murphy
Second-Half Surge Leads Memphis over Tulane in American Opener, 77-65
Dec 29, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Burrell collects double-double in first start of season
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Four Memphis men's basketball players scored double figures, and senior Trahson Burrell collected a double-double in his first start of the season, as the Tigers defeated Tulane, 77-65, in the American Athletic Conference opener for both teams at FedExForum Tuesday.
Burrell had a game- and season-high 21 points to go with a career-best 13 rebounds to pace the Tigers to their seventh win in eight games. With the victory, Memphis improved to 9-3 on the season. The Tigers have now won 12 consecutive conference openers, dating to the 2005-06 season. Tulane fell to 7-7 in the loss.
"[It was a] good win," said Memphis head coach Josh Pastner. "I was not happy with our first half. I thought we started the game fine, but I felt we played a lot of 'me' basketball the first half. I thought we were in quicksand in some areas. I thought our transition defense stunk, was garbage, and was embarrassing to watch, and that was one of the keys to the game: guarding them in transition defense and limiting them to one shot. They were kicking our rear end in the first half on the glass, and they were kicking our rear end in fast break opportunities. So the first half basketball, which is a credit to Tulane and coach [Ed] Conroy. But, I was embarrassed. At halftime, I showed them the film. I told them, 'you're either going to pick it up, or tomorrow in practice, for three straight hours, we're going to do transition defense basketball.' I think they got the message."
Trailing by a 37-35 margin entering the second half, the Tigers outscored Tulane, 42-28, in the second half as the Green Wave endured a 2-for-14 shooting stretch from the floor late in the game and UofM pulled away.
Senior Shaq Goodwin scored 17 points and added eight boards as freshman K.J. Lawson recorded 15 points and a career-high seven rebounds in his first start, while senior Ricky Tarrant had 16 points and six assists.
Memphis shot 40 percent from the field for the game, going 27-of-68, while Tulane was 35 percent from the floor, including just 9-for-31 in the second half.
In all, the game featured seven lead changes and was tied six times.
The Tigers took the lead for good on a Burrell steal and layup, making it a 48-46 game with 13:25 remaining and widened the lead to 15 points on two occasions.
"In the second half, we were much better," Pastner continued. "We only had three turnovers in the second half, nine total. That was a big reason we won the game. We were poor on defensive rebounding, because they had 18 offensive rebounds. That's just poor, very poor. Fortunately, we did a much better job in the second half defensively. We forced them in turnovers, and they only shot 29 percent from the field and 25 percent from three so defensively, we were much better. We started off the game really poor because at the tip-off, Trahson didn't box out and it started from there. We've got to be a lot better. We can't start it off with those type of halves. The start was fine, good job from the free throw line. The start was fine, it was just the overall part of the half. Three times, four, times, we were up by four, five, seven, eight, and we don't gain rebound. We don't gain rebound. We're leaking out and trying to score the other way, and all of a sudden, what Tulane does is hit a three, get an and one. That's not appropriate for how we coach and teach. I was disappointed in that. Second half was much better. I'm glad we got the win. I thought Trahson, 21 and 13, had a double, double. KJ, I thought gave us really good minutes. I thought Ricky Tarrant played poor the first half, but was good the second half."
Memphis opened the game hitting six of its first 12 shots from the field to hold a 16-13 advantage with 8:51 gone in the first half. After surrendering the first basket of the game, Memphis led by as many as six at 16-10 at the 15:20 mark before the Green Wave closed to within 18-16 at the 10:49 mark on a Cameron Reynolds 3-pointer.
The Tigers used a 6-0 run, keyed by Goodwin three-point play and another three from Lawson, to expand the lead to 24-16 with 8:47 remaining. Another Reynolds three and Blake Paul layup cut the Tigers' lead to 24-21 with 7:53 on the clock. An offensive rebound by Lawson and jumper from Burrell restored a five-point 32-27 lead with less than five to play. The Green Wave, though, kept coming and took the lead into the halftime locker room with a 10-5 run, led by five points by Dylan Osetkowski.
Osetkowski tallied the first four points for Tulane coming out if the break to extend its lead to 41-35 with 18:20 to play, but the Tigers rallied to reclaim control of the proceedings when Tarrant sunk a 3-pointer off of an assist from Goodwin for a 42-41 lead at 16:39. A Louis Dabney trey gave the Green Wave a momentary lead again, but Lawson tied it at 44 with a layup and Goodwin followed with a dunk for a 46-44 edge at the 14:25 mark.
Malik Morgan scored 18 points to lead Tulane, while Osetkowski pulled down a team-high 11 boards for the visitor.
Memphis is at South Carolina for its first true road game of the season Jan. 2 at 5 p.m., in a game televised on ESPNU.
Burrell had a game- and season-high 21 points to go with a career-best 13 rebounds to pace the Tigers to their seventh win in eight games. With the victory, Memphis improved to 9-3 on the season. The Tigers have now won 12 consecutive conference openers, dating to the 2005-06 season. Tulane fell to 7-7 in the loss.
"[It was a] good win," said Memphis head coach Josh Pastner. "I was not happy with our first half. I thought we started the game fine, but I felt we played a lot of 'me' basketball the first half. I thought we were in quicksand in some areas. I thought our transition defense stunk, was garbage, and was embarrassing to watch, and that was one of the keys to the game: guarding them in transition defense and limiting them to one shot. They were kicking our rear end in the first half on the glass, and they were kicking our rear end in fast break opportunities. So the first half basketball, which is a credit to Tulane and coach [Ed] Conroy. But, I was embarrassed. At halftime, I showed them the film. I told them, 'you're either going to pick it up, or tomorrow in practice, for three straight hours, we're going to do transition defense basketball.' I think they got the message."
Trailing by a 37-35 margin entering the second half, the Tigers outscored Tulane, 42-28, in the second half as the Green Wave endured a 2-for-14 shooting stretch from the floor late in the game and UofM pulled away.
Senior Shaq Goodwin scored 17 points and added eight boards as freshman K.J. Lawson recorded 15 points and a career-high seven rebounds in his first start, while senior Ricky Tarrant had 16 points and six assists.
Memphis shot 40 percent from the field for the game, going 27-of-68, while Tulane was 35 percent from the floor, including just 9-for-31 in the second half.
In all, the game featured seven lead changes and was tied six times.
The Tigers took the lead for good on a Burrell steal and layup, making it a 48-46 game with 13:25 remaining and widened the lead to 15 points on two occasions.
"In the second half, we were much better," Pastner continued. "We only had three turnovers in the second half, nine total. That was a big reason we won the game. We were poor on defensive rebounding, because they had 18 offensive rebounds. That's just poor, very poor. Fortunately, we did a much better job in the second half defensively. We forced them in turnovers, and they only shot 29 percent from the field and 25 percent from three so defensively, we were much better. We started off the game really poor because at the tip-off, Trahson didn't box out and it started from there. We've got to be a lot better. We can't start it off with those type of halves. The start was fine, good job from the free throw line. The start was fine, it was just the overall part of the half. Three times, four, times, we were up by four, five, seven, eight, and we don't gain rebound. We don't gain rebound. We're leaking out and trying to score the other way, and all of a sudden, what Tulane does is hit a three, get an and one. That's not appropriate for how we coach and teach. I was disappointed in that. Second half was much better. I'm glad we got the win. I thought Trahson, 21 and 13, had a double, double. KJ, I thought gave us really good minutes. I thought Ricky Tarrant played poor the first half, but was good the second half."
Memphis opened the game hitting six of its first 12 shots from the field to hold a 16-13 advantage with 8:51 gone in the first half. After surrendering the first basket of the game, Memphis led by as many as six at 16-10 at the 15:20 mark before the Green Wave closed to within 18-16 at the 10:49 mark on a Cameron Reynolds 3-pointer.
The Tigers used a 6-0 run, keyed by Goodwin three-point play and another three from Lawson, to expand the lead to 24-16 with 8:47 remaining. Another Reynolds three and Blake Paul layup cut the Tigers' lead to 24-21 with 7:53 on the clock. An offensive rebound by Lawson and jumper from Burrell restored a five-point 32-27 lead with less than five to play. The Green Wave, though, kept coming and took the lead into the halftime locker room with a 10-5 run, led by five points by Dylan Osetkowski.
Osetkowski tallied the first four points for Tulane coming out if the break to extend its lead to 41-35 with 18:20 to play, but the Tigers rallied to reclaim control of the proceedings when Tarrant sunk a 3-pointer off of an assist from Goodwin for a 42-41 lead at 16:39. A Louis Dabney trey gave the Green Wave a momentary lead again, but Lawson tied it at 44 with a layup and Goodwin followed with a dunk for a 46-44 edge at the 14:25 mark.
Malik Morgan scored 18 points to lead Tulane, while Osetkowski pulled down a team-high 11 boards for the visitor.
Memphis is at South Carolina for its first true road game of the season Jan. 2 at 5 p.m., in a game televised on ESPNU.
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