Women's Basketball Wins Third Straight; Defeats Nicholls State 73-62

Wednesday, December 21

Memphis, Tenn.

1:00 PM

University of Memphis

6-6

Nicholls State

3-8

Nicholls

Memphis

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Women's Basketball Wins Third Straight; Defeats Nicholls State 73-62

Dec 21, 2016 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Memphis goes into the Holiday break with a .500 record

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Double digit scoring efforts by Brea Elmore, Taylor Barnes, and Cheyenne Creighton helped lead the University of Memphis women's basketball team to a 73-62 victory over Nicholls State Wednesday afternoon. The win improved Memphis back to .500 at 6-6 overall. The Tigers are also 5-2 at home this season and go into the Holiday break on a three-game winning streak.

How It Happened
With three, three-pointers in the first four minutes of play, Nicholls State took an early 8-4 lead over the Tigers. Memphis countered, however, with a 6-0 run due to baskets by Creighton, Elmore, and Taylor Williams to take over the lead with under three to play in the first.

After Nicholls took back the lead briefly, a lay-up by Loysha Morris with 2:05 to play in the first put Memphis on top for the remainder of the first half. Memphis continued to build its lead to as many as nine in the second quarter before a Nicholls three-pointer with under a minute to play made the halftime score at 31-25.

Nicholls opened the second half on an 8-0 run to take over the lead once again from the Tigers. The Colonels conducted the run in a similar fashion as they started the game with a pair of three-pointers and a two-point basket.

Memphis responded once again with a 23-8 run to close out the third quarter. The Tigers proceeded to maintain a steady lead throughout the remainder of the contest. The contest wrapped up by sending Barnes to the free throw line eight times. She converted on seven of those shots and finished the game shooting 13-for-15 from the charity stripe.

Turning Point
After Nicholls State opened up the third quarter with an 8-0 run, Memphis responded by closing the third quarter on a 23-8 run. The Tigers never looked back and proceeded to lead by double digits for the majority of the fourth quarter.

Notables

Taylor Barnes recorded a career-high 21 points and finished the game going 13-for-15 from the charity stripe. She also added six rebounds and four assists for Memphis.
Cheyenne Creighton recorded her fourth-straight double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. She has had 10 rebounds in each of the last four games.
Brea Elmore finished the game with 17 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and four steals for the Tigers.
Memphis won the rebounding battle, 44-31, over Nicholls State.
The 73 points is the most points scored by the Tigers this season. The 23 points in the third quarter matches the 23 points scored in the third quarter against Arkansas at the Nugget Classic.
As a team, Memphis went 22-for-26 from the free throw line.

Quotable – Melissa McFerrin, Head Coach
On Taylor Barnes' performance…
"I think Taylor Barnes is going to just develop really, really wonderfully. She was a player that we knew could handle it. She can play some point, could play some two. We knew she had a great three-level scoring. She can get to the rim. We saw that tonight. She can hit a pull-up. We saw that tonight. In her senior season, her three's started to come around. Taylor Barnes was a kid that we were really excited about and we are really glad she's a Tiger."

Next Up For The Tigers
Memphis will take a week off before hosting Vanderbilt on Dec. 28. Tip-off against the Commodores in a game broadcasted by ESPNU is slated for 4:00 p.m. at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse. For more information on the Memphis women's basketball team, follow the Tigers on Twitter at @MemphisWBB or go online to www.gotigersgo.com.