The Kendric Davis Memphis fans remember from his days at SMU which earned him AAC Player of the Year showed up in a big way leading the Tigers to a 62-47 win over the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams. Davis the Tigers second leading scorer on the season averaging 17 pts. per game matched that average…….in the first half. Davis considered the number one transfer from the portal this season ended the game with 26 points on the day to go along with 7 assists.
Two teams known for their pressure defense designed to create offense from turnovers did just that, each forcing 18 turnovers. Memphis was the better team at capitalizing on those turnovers though, converting them into 26 points while VCU was only able to generate 11 off of the Tiger miscues. Postgame, Memphis coach Penny Hardaway on the defensive effort claimed “That’s who we are, that’s our identity. We were shrinking the court really well.”
Memphis got out of the gates quick with a lob from Chandler Lawson to Deandre Williams for a dunk and then successive layups from Davis and Jayden Hardaway who got his first start of the season. VCU would follow with their first bucket of the game and then Davis nailed a three. VCU then scored 8 consecutive points to take their only lead of the game at 10-9 and then Davis took control of the game and the Tiger defense turned up the pressure and extended the lead out, finally settling at 30-16 at the half. Memphis held VCU to 23.1% shooting in the first half.
VCU was able to cut the lead under eight in the first five minutes of the second half as fouls either put the Rams on the line or extended possessions. Once the fouling got under control, Memphis was able to build the lead back into double digits and extended it out to 22 with 3:53 left in the game on a Davis three pointer before cruising to the end and winning by the fifteen point margin.
Williams, the leading scorer for the Tigers coming into the game was held t0 just 8 points on 4-7 shooting. He was the leading rebounder for Memphis on the day pulling down 10. Keonte Kennedy, coming off the bench for the first time this season was the second leading scorer for the Tigers on the day chipping in 9 on 4-5 shooting.
Memphis won the battle on the boards 40-35 and shot 42.1% on the day while holding VCU to 29.1%. The TIgers were 5-15 from beyond the arc for 33.3% and held VCU to 25% from long range on 6-24.
Announced attendance for the game was 10,653. Next up for Memphis, 2-1 on the season, is a trip to Orlando to play Seton Hall in the ESPN Events Invitational Thanksgiving night at 6:30 PM. The game will be televised on ESPN News. The winner of that game will play the following night against the winner of Nebraska vs. Oklahoma at 7:00 PM while the losers would play at 4:30. Other teams in the tournament include Florida St., Siena, Ole Miss and Stanford. The final day of action will take place on Sunday. The Tigers return home to play N. Alabama on Nov. 30.