The Tigers clamped down to defeat the Hokies in the NIT Season Tip-Off
1 min read
Landers Nolley led Memphis in scoring last season. This season, five-star freshmen Jalen Duren and Emoni Bates are the Tigers’ top two scorers. It’s a talented trio — one that, believe it or not, combined to score exactly zero points in the first half of Wednesday night’s game against Virginia Tech.
That probably won’t happen again all season.
But even more surprising than Nolley, Duren and Bates going scoreless in the opening 20 minutes against the Hokies was the fact that Memphis was still ahead at halftime despite Nolley, Duren and Bates going scoreless in the opening 20 minutes against the Hokies. That was obviously a good sign for the Tigers, all things considered. And even though those three never really got going in the second half either, Memphis still managed to beat Virginia Tech 69-61 in the semifinals of NIT Season Tip-Off thanks to the Tigers’ latest overwhelming defensive effort.
“We weren’t quite ourselves offensively,” said Virginia Tech coach Mike Young, “and Memphis had a lot to do with that.”
Memphis held Virginia Tech to just 33.9% shooting from the field, including 33.3% from 3-point range. The byproduct of that is that the Tigers maintained the best adjusted defensive-efficiency rating in the country, according to KenPom.
Memphis was also No. 1 in that category last season.
“I love my team,” said Memphis coach Penny Hardaway. “I love what we bring to the table. We can win any kind of game — an ugly game, a good game, and still be right there because of our defense. I’m proud.”
It’s worth noting that the Tigers only turned the ball over 14 times against Virginia Tech, which is great considering they entered the game with an offensive-turnover percentage of 27.2 that ranked 353rd nationally. DeAndre Williams scored a team-high 16 points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds to make up for the off-nights from Duren, Bates and Nolley. So now Memphis — which remains No. 6 in Thursday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings — will play Iowa State in Friday’s title game of the NIT Season Tip-off. If the Tigers win that one, they’ll be 6-0 for the first time since the 2010-11 season
Top 25 And 1 rankings
Biggest Movers
3 Michigan State
1 Auburn
