No. 24 Tigers come from behind to beat Wichita State

Memphis rallies to take down Shockers, 61-53

From the University of Memphis

GoTigersGo.com

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The No.

24 University of Memphis men's basketball team came from behind to win over Wichita State, 61-53, Thursday night inside the FedExForum.

The 53 points were the fewest allowed by the Tigers this season.

The Tigers shot 44.2 percent for the game, led by guard PJ Haggerty, who scored 22 points on 8-for-11 shooting.

He also added five rebounds, four assists, and four steals.

Senior guard Tyrese Hunter chipped in 16 points with three rebounds and four steals.

The first half was much of the same for the Tigers as it's been all season, filled with turnovers. Memphis coughed the ball up 14 times in the first 20 minutes and only shot 39.1 percent from the floor (9of-23). Six different players had a miscue and no one reached double figures.

Wichita State was up as many as eight midway through the first half, eventually taking a 27-23 lead into the locker room.

Memphis came out of halftime stagnant, as the Shockers grew their lead back to seven. But from there, the Tigers turned it up a notch with consecutive forced turnovers on defense and buckets from Haggerty, Hunter and PJ Carter to give the Tigers their first lead (40-39) in nearly 25 minutes of game action since the score was 6-4.

Over the next 10 minutes, the score never got more than one possession either way until Hunter forced two steals and

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got a dunk with 1:42 to play to give Memphis a 56-51 advantage. The Tigers reeled off 12-straight points until a Shocker basket with 11 seconds on the clock to seal the 61-53 victory.

Harlond Beverly led Wichita State with 18 points in 37 minutes.

The Tigers forced a seasonhigh 22 turnovers by Wichita State, which was also a season- high for the Shockers.

POSTGAME NOTES

• Memphis used the starting lineup of PJ Haggerty, Tyrese Hunter, Colby Rogers, Nicholas Jourdain and Moussa Cisse for the 16th time this season. They improved to 12-4 on the year with that lineup.

• The Tigers improved to 7-2 at home this season.

• Memphis extended is lead in the all-time series to 21-13 and have now won 11 of the last 13 matchups against the Shockers.

• The Tigers shot 44.2 percent overall (23-52), but struggled from deep (6-19; 31.6%) and at the free throw line (9-15; 60.0%).

• Wichita State paced the battle on the boards, 32-29. The six assists were the fewest for Memphis in a game since Dec. 14, 2019 at Tennessee.

• The Tigers improved to 45-3 overall under Penny Hardaway when holding opponents to 60 points or fewer, including 29-1 at home.

• PJ Haggerty eclipsed 20 points for the 13th time this season, including the fourth time in five games. Haggerty recorded four of Memphis' six assists.

• Tyrese Hunter reached double figures for the 15th time on the year behind 16 points in 37 minutes. He led the team with a pair of 3-pointers and shot 6-of-14 overall.

• Hunter matched Haggerty with a team-high four steals, tying his most of the season.

• PJ Carter scored seven points and matched his season high with four rebounds. He shot 3-of-7 overall in 18 minutes off the bench.

• Dain Dainja grabbed a teamhigh eight rebounds.

• Moussa Cisse blocked a game-high four shots, which tie his most of the year.

UP NEXT

Memphis concludes the week at home on Sunday at noon against UAB in a 'Retro Game' and 'Stripe Out' at FedExForm.

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For complete information on Memphis Tiger Men's Basketball, visit www.GoTigersGo.com and follow the team's social media channels on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.