Feb. 17 Men's Basketball Weekend Round-Up
Feb. 17, 2008
History nearly repeated itself Saturday at Bartow Arena, but junior Chris Douglas-Roberts' conventional three-point play with 6.5 seconds remaining helped top-ranked Memphis to a 79-78 win against UAB to remain the only undefeated team in the nation. The Tigers, who improved to 25-0 this season, suffered their last conference loss to UAB at Bartow Arena during the 2005-06 season. Saturday, the Blazers held a two-point advantage at halftime and led most of the second half before Douglas-Roberts' heroics. Marshall and Tulsa won their third straight conference games with big wins over Tulane (68-54) and UTEP (73-50), respectively. Southern Miss earned its first road win of the season with a 72-62 victory at East Carolina. With a 69-57 win over visiting SMU, Houston moved into sole possession of second place in the C-USA standings. Meanwhile, earlier in the day across town, UCF defeated Rice, 60-53, to jump into the coveted fourth place in the standings. The top four teams at the end of the regular season receive a first-round bye in the 2008 Conference USA Men's Basketball Championship. NO. 1 MEMPHIS 79, UAB 78 Memphis left with its 44-game regular-season and 34-game league winning streaks barely intact, and with Douglas-Roberts' main focal point: A win. "The winning streak wasn't in my mind at all," said Douglas-Roberts, who scored 32 points. "It was just winning the game. That's all I was thinking about." After Douglas-Roberts made his shot, the Blazers' Robert Vaden missed an off-balance 3-point attempt and Lawrence Kinnard grabbed the long rebound. He heaved up a shot in the paint that went in, and officials promptly headed to the scorer's table to watch replays. They ruled with only a brief double-check that Kinnard didn't get the shot off in time. He already knew it.
When I got the rebound, I looked up and saw that the (shot clock) light was red," Kinnard said. "I was hoping and praying they might give it to us, but I knew it was too late." UAB (17-8, 7-3) is the last C-USA team to beat Memphis, 715 days earlier. Memphis senior Joey Dorsey, the league's top rebounder, had just one point and two rebounds. Antonio Anderson added 27 points and four 3-pointers for the Tigers. He and Douglas-Roberts combined to make 22 shots, the rest of the team just six. The Tigers missed nine consecutive shots before Anderson's 3-pointer from the corner cut the deficit 77-73 with 1:22 left. After a UAB miss, Douglas-Roberts drilled a trey with 38 seconds remaining to trim the deficit to one point. With 15 seconds left, Vaden then made one of two free throws to set up the final sequences. Douglas-Roberts spun and hit an 8-footer over Vaden, who fouled him. Memphis coach John Calipari said he had initially called for the ball to go to Derrick Rose, who was struggling to a 2-of-13, six-point performance. He said assistant coach John Robic suggested running the "pistol" play to Douglas-Roberts instead. "We ran it to let Chris turn that corner with the middle pick and roll and he just kept going," Calipari said. "That's his game. He wants that basketball." Douglas-Roberts knew Vaden, who scored 27 points after missing the last game with a groin injury, would also want UAB's last shot. "We double-teamed him at the end, and I didn't think he really wanted to pass the ball at the end of the game," he said. "I don't blame him with the type of game he had." Memphis native Kinnard added 19 points and 11 boards for the Blazers, who shot 57 percent and made 20-of-22 free throws. The Tigers tied Texas' 1913-17 teams for the eighth-best regular-season winning streak at 44 games. They did it in style, too. "Anybody watching that, either here or on television, had to say what a great game that was," Calipari said. "Every team we play comes out with a special level of inspiration. The close games we've had we've held the other team to 36 or 37 percent shooting. UAB pretty much had its way with us offensively." MARSHALL 68, TULANE 54 Marshall (14-10, 6-5 C-USA) never trailed and utilized a 42-29 rebounding advantage, including 16-4 on the offensive glass, to cruise past the Green Wave (15-9, 5-5) and jump Tulane in the conference standings. Sophomore Tyler Wilkerson posted his third double-double, scoring a game-high 15 points with 10 rebounds (six offensive). Wilkerson, who was limited to 10 minutes and two points at SMU on Wednesday, bounced back with a 4-for-7 shooting night with two steals in 28 minutes. In total, four MU players reached double digits in points: Darryl Merthie (14 points), Tirrell Baines (13) and Mark Dorris (10). Dorris added a game-high five assists while Merthie tied his career-high with seven rebounds. Wilkerson scored the first points of the game after an offensive rebound, the first of Marshall's 15 second-chance points. After a tight first nine minutes of the game, Marshall began to pull away midway through the period. The Herd's 21-7 run, spanning nine-plus minutes, gave MU its biggest lead of the first half, 30-15, with 4:17 remaining. All three of MU's first-half 3-pointers came during the Herd scoring surge, including two by Merthie and one by Humphrey. Marshall entered halftime up 37-25. The Herd dominated the glass in the first half to the tune of 26-11, including 13 offensive rebounds. It was more of the same in the second half as Marshall did not allow Tulane to get closer than nine points. When the Green Wave crept to within 42-33 at 15:25, Pierre-Marie Altidor Cespedes nailed a trey a minute later off a nice assist from Merthie to get back up 12 points. Dorris was fouled while sinking a 3-pointer at 10:57 (missed free throw) to push Marshall ahead 55-42. Dorris' second and final trey of the game, with 2:02 remaining and the Herd running out the shot clock, turned out to be the final points of the game. David Gomez matched Wilkerson in scoring with a team-high 15 points for Tulane. Gomez, the team leader in rebounding (6.2 rpg), pulled down only two rebounds. Donnavan Stith recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Altidor Cespedes played a career-high 40 minutes with three points and three assists. Robbie Jackson netted five points in nine minutes off the bench. Humphrey grabbed eight boards and dished out three assists in 35 minutes. The win puts Marshall a game above .500 in conference play for the first time in its three-year history in the league (excluding 1-0 starts). The Herd has won eight of its last 10 C-USA home games. SOUTHERN MISS 72, EAST CAROLINA 62 The victory snapped a 10-game road losing streak, dating back to last season. It was also the Golden Eagles' first victory this year when trailing at the half. "This is the most satisfying win since I've been here," said Southern Miss head coach Larry Eustachy. "We've been through a lot, and this was a really tough week. They had us on the ropes, but we hung in there. Jeremy (Wise) made some defensive plays that he's never made before. This was just a great win overall." Wise scored 12 points and had a career-high 12 assists. Sai'Quon Stone scored 16 points and pulled down six boards. R.L. Horton added 11 points, and Beasley and Craig Craft also grabbed six rebounds. The teams traded baskets through the first nine minutes of the game. With the Golden Eagles up 13-10 9:35 into the game, ECU went on a 16-6 run over the next four minutes to grab its largest lead of the game, 26-19. However, Beasley's jumper with 5:23 left in the first half triggered a 13-3 Southern Miss run, giving the Golden Eagles a 32-29 advantage with 2:54 to play. But, the Pirates outscored Southern Miss 7-0 the rest of the half, capped off by Sam Hinnant's three-pointer, giving ECU a 36-32 advantage heading into the break. East Carolina shot 52.2% (12-23) from the field in the first half, including 7-12 (58.3%) from behind the arc. Southern Miss countered, shooting 45.8% (11-24) from the field. Gabe Blair opened the second half hitting a jumper to give ECU a six-point lead. But that's when things changed. The Golden Eagles began to battle back, slowly chipping away at the deficit. Beasley hit back-to-back jumpers to pull within two. After a three-pointer by Cory Farmer extended East Carolina's lead to five, a Gjio Bain dunk sent the Golden Eagles on a 20-5 run, capped by Bain's jumper at 7:11 of the second half that gave Southern Miss the lead for good. Jamar Abrams hit a lay-up to pull ECU within 59-51 with 8:12 to play in the game. But the Golden Eagle defense held East Carolina without a field goal until one second remaining in the half. For the half, Southern Miss held the Pirates to just four field goals, as they shot 16.0% (4-25) in the second half. The Golden Eagles, however, shot 14-28 (50.0%) from the floor for the half. Darrell Jenkins led East Carolina with 13 points. James Legan added 10, and Gabe Blair had a game-high 10 rebounds. HOUSTON 69, SMU 47 McKiver connected on 6-of-11 shots from behind the arc and was one of seven Cougars to record at least one trey in the contest. It was his sixth straight 20-point performance, dating back to Jan. 30 against No. 1 Memphis. The Cougars (19-5, 8-2) set a Hofheinz Pavilion record with 43 3-point attempts - topping the previous best of 40 set against South Alabama in 2007 and against Southern earlier this season - and fell one short of the record for 3-pointers made, connecting on 18. Sophomore guard Kelvin Lewis and senior guard Marcus Malone each posted three 3-pointers, while freshmen guard DaShaun Williams and Zamal Nixon nailed a pair of treys. Lewis finished with 11 points, while senior forward Dion Dowell added a game-high eight rebounds. McKiver also topped all players with seven assists. The Cougars raced out to a 17-4 lead through the game's first eight-and-a-half minutes and never trailed in the game. SMU (8-15, 2-8) pulled to within nine at 23-14 when Derrick Roberts hit a 3-pointer at the 8:28 mark. But the Cougars went on an 18-4 run to close out the first half and were never threatened again. TULSA 74, UTEP 50 Guard Ray Reese added a season-high 15 points and senior Rod Earls broke out of a slump with 13 points to spark Tulsa (13-10, 5-6 Conference USA), which shot just 28 percent in the first half but improved to 52 percent while outscoring UTEP, 50-18, after halftime. UTEP (14-9, 5-5) got 19 points from freshman Randy Culpepper and 15 from junior Stefon Jackson. Jerome Jordan scored inside to ignite a 24-5 run to start the second half for Tulsa, which trailed 32-23 at halftime. McDade had three 3-pointers in the surge, and Ben Uzoh's driving basket extended Tulsa's lead to 47-37. After starting 1-for-14, the Golden Hurricane made 9 of their next 11 3-pointers. The Golden Hurricane scored the first eight points of the second half, and Jordan's three-point play put them into the lead at 36-34. UTEP made just 7 of 27 shots in the second half and shot a season-low 30.5 percent for the game while also committing 19 turnovers. Jordan had nine points, 10 rebounds and three blocks for Tulsa, which outrebounded UTEP 24-13 in the second half. Both teams ended the game with 40 rebounds. Jackson, who leads Conference USA with a 23.8-point average, made just 4-of-12 field goals while being guarded mostly by Reese. He had scored 29 in UTEP's home win against Tulsa earlier this season. UCF 60, RICE 53 UCF led by as many as 12 points in the second half. The Owls (3-21, 0-11) would not go away, cutting the Knights' edge to 55-51 with less than two minutes to play. Taylor and UCF responded. He hit a pair of free throws at the 1:30 mark to push the edge to seven and after junior Kenrick Zondervan picked up a steal and found Taylor on the break for a slam dunk, UCF led 60-51 with 40 seconds to go. "I knew this (game) wouldn't be easy. I was thoroughly impressed with Rice and how hard they played," said UCF head coach Kirk Speraw. "We overcame foul trouble and some personnel issues. We found a way (to win). Jermaine played well and made some big shots when it mattered. That is what we need him to do." For the sixth-straight game, UCF starting senior center Stanley Billings did not play due to injury. UCF limited the Owls to just 34.6 percent shooting from the floor. The Knights used a 15-2 run midway through the first half to seemingly pull away from Rice. With UCF trailing by a point, senior guard Chip Cartwright sparked the spurt with a layup at the 10:28 mark. Six different UCF players scored during the run, which Taylor capped with 4:54 to go in the half with a foul shot that handed the Knights a 24-12 edge. A jumper from Taylor with under a minute to go in the period gave UCF a 31-20 lead at halftime. Taylor scored 11 points before intermission. Rice shot just 31.6 percent overall in the opening half. Taylor shot 7-of-11 from the floor and also recorded three assists and a steal in 36 minutes. Senior guard Dave Noel scored 13 points in the win and added a team-high eight boards and seven assists. Senior Patrick Britton paced the Owls with 12 points. Freshman Suleiman Braimoh had his first career double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. |
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