Memphis takes down UAB for AAC Championship
Tigers earn No. 5 seed in NCAA tournament
From the Memphis Tigers
GoTigersGo.com
FORT WORTH, Texas — While Memphis was a lock to make the NCAA Tournament even before tipping off in the American Athletic Conference Tournament championship game, coach Penny Hardaway and the 16th-ranked Tigers got another trophy on the way to Seattle.
PJ Haggerty scored 23 points and Dain Dainja had another double-double with 22 points and 12 rebounds as the Tigers beat UAB 84-72 on Sunday to wrap up the tournament after also winning the league's regular- season title for the first time. Colby Rogers also scored double figures, adding 15 points.
Memphis becomes the first AAC team to win both the regular season and tournament crowns in the same season.
'We're winners. We want to keep that winning edge and start the tradition going again of Memphis being associated with winning,' Hardaway said. 'We don't want to leave anything on the table that we have an opportunity to win.
As long as I'm the coach here, we'll never look at a tournament as just something to do just to get to the next thing.'
Memphis (29-5) is in the NCAA Tournament for the 29th time, and the third time the past four seasons with the seventh-year coach who as player for the Tigers was part of the 1992 and 1993 tournaments. They are the No. 5 seed in the West Regional, and play Friday against Colorado State (25-9), which has won 10 in a row.
Haggerty put the Tigers ahead of UAB to stay with his tiebreaking bank shot with
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16:10 left. The AAC player of the year later had a 17-second span when he drove the baseline for another shot off the glass, then had a steal that led to his fastbreak ending with a three-point play.
Yaxel Lendeborg had 19 points and 17 rebounds for the Blazers (22-12), last year's AAC tournament champion who had to win the game that ended less than a half-hour before the Selection Show to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
Efrem Johnson had 17 points.
Lendeborg's 23rd doubledouble matched Stanford's Maxime Raynaud for the most this season, but he was worn out after three double-doubles in as many days.
Tigers are officially going dancing. Memphis received a five seed in the NCAA Tournament's West Region. The Tigers will face off against 12 seed Colorado State on Friday at the University of Washington in Seattle.
If Memphis advances they would face the winner of 4 seed Maryland and 13 seed San Diego State. The number 1 seed in their region is Florida. The regional final is in San Francisco.
Memphis (29-5) captured the American Athletic Conference's regular season and tournament championships. They beat the UAB Blazers, 84-72, in the tourney championship to secure the AAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Memphis becomes the first AAC school to secure both titles in the same year.
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