TIGER BASKETBALL

Memphis Tigers pull out 68-63 win at Tulane as top AAC scorer Jeremiah Martin returns

Mark Giannotto
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Memphis teammates Jimario Rivers (right) and David Nickelberry (left) celebrate on the bench during second half action against Cincinnati at the FedExForum in Memphis Tenn., Saturday, January 27, 2018.

NEW ORLEANS — Memphis point guard Jeremiah Martin dribbled the ball like a yo-yo on the wing, between his legs and behind his back, sizing up 6-foot-8 Tulane senior Cameron Reynolds. 

He probed the lane, then stepped back and drove into the paint again. When the defense collapsed, he fed teammate Kyvon Davenport for an open 3-pointer.

Martin, back in the lineup Saturday after missing the Tigers' last game due to a hip injury, had found his comfort zone when the Tigers needed him most.

Memphis pulled out a 68-63 win over Tulane at Devlin Fieldhouse on Saturday, using a second-half surge propelled by Martin and what he learned while watching from the bench.

Once the Tigers went up by 13 points early in the second half, Tulane stormed back into the game with a 14-2 run that cut its deficit to 37-36 with less than 12 minutes left. Memphis coach Tubby Smith called timeout and told his players the Green Wave were simply playing harder, and executing better, than them.  

This triggered a surge, as the Tigers proceeded to score on 9 of its next 10 possessions. Forward Mike Parks Jr. provided seven consecutive points before Martin (22 points, 4 assists) took over.

The junior scored or assisted on 14 straight Tigers' points and suddenly Memphis (16-11, 7-7 AAC) led by double digits again. 

Afterwards, Smith commended his players for their "courage and toughness down the stretch."

Martin, meanwhile, called Parks (15 points), "the key to our offense because when he gets going, it makes everybody else flow and it’s like everybody be happy.”

It's an observation he gleaned from the Tigers' win at SMU on Wednesday night without him.

"It was good, me sitting out that game, letting it heal a little bit more and actually seeing what our team is about," Martin said. "I actually seen ... the guys played well. Just shout out to our team. They’re just a bunch of tough guys and they stepped up to the challenge.”

Memphis' second victory in a row away from FedExForum, directly after a stretch in which it lost five of six games, did feature some nervous moments in crunch time.

Tulane (13-13, 4-10) hit four 3-pointers over the final 4:08, including a banked-in trey by guard Jordan Cornish that trimmed the Tigers' advantage to 66-63 with 12 seconds to go.

But freshman Jamal Johnson (8 points, 8 rebounds) stepped to the free throw line and hit two foul shots to ice the game.

"To bounce back and get these two wins, it gives us a lot of confidence," Parks said. "We just got to keep it up.”

Starting fast

Memphis jumped out to a double-digit lead during the start of both halves, and those surges were a huge factor in Saturday's result.

The Tigers hit 6 of their first 7 shots from the floor. They also had assists on 7 of their opening 9 made field goals as the improved ball movement from the win at SMU carried over.

Four of the team's five starters had a field goal during the first six minutes.

Martin, meanwhile, showed early he was feeling no effects from the hip injury that forced him to miss that game by nailing two 3-pointers in a row. As a result, Memphis led, 15-4, less than eight minutes into the game.

After Tulane closed the deficit to 28-22 at the break, Memphis pushed its lead back to 13 by scoring the first seven points of the second half. 

Going zone again

For the second game in a row, Memphis turned almost exclusively to a 2-3 zone defense and it kept one of the AAC's better offenses in check for long periods of time, especially in the first half. 

Tulane hit 2 of its first 12 field goal attempts, had just 22 points at halftime and shot 38.8 percent the entire afternoon. 

Smith struggled to find a solution to the Tigers' issues slowing dribble penetration playing his traditional ball-line defense much of the season. But it appears he figured out an adjustment to help cover up a glaring deficiency.

There are still problems to iron out, particularly because Tulane began getting inside the paint for numerous easy baskets as the second half wore on. Nonetheless, the Tigers still held the home team almost 12 points below its season average.

Turnover trend lives on

The Tigers' strong start got muted a bit by their inability to secure the basketball, which is becoming the norm for this group. They entered Saturday averaging more turnovers  in league play (14.5) than anybody in the American Athletic Conference.

Memphis lived up to that billing with 10 first-half turnovers against Tulane, and the mistakes allowed the Green Wave to hang close despite shooting 27.6 percent from the field before halftime. The Tigers had 16 turnovers for the game.

Up next

Memphis returns to FedExForum on Thursday night to face Houston for the first time this season. Tip off is scheduled for 8 p.m.