Coming off a thrilling buzzer-beating victory on the road at Temple, Memphis returned home to play a Wichita State team on a two-game winning streak. With some early conference losses, winning by any means necessary remained the theme as Wichita State was directly behind Memphis in the standings.
The Tigers entered the game favored by 10 points and with an 88.1 percent chance to win according to ESPN Analytics. With Alex Lomax, Malcolm Dandrige and Jayden Hardaway still out with injuries, the Tigers started the game with Kendric Davis, Keonte Kennedy, Elijah McCadden, DeAndre Williams, and Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu (Kao) for the second straight game.
1st Half
Memphis won the opening tipoff and began the game with a shot clock violation and another turnover on their second possession. DeAndre Williams kicked off the scoring after drawing a foul and hitting both of his free throw attempts followed by a Kendric Davis three near the logo.
Wichita State responded with their first points of the game after drawing a foul and hitting a mid-range jumper. Both teams traded baskets on the next two possessions as the teams headed to the first media timeout with the game tied at seven.
Both teams started out shooting poorly from the floor as the defenses were stifling early. Wichita State missed their first six three-point shot attempts and began the game shooting 20 percent overall while Memphis began the game shooting 33.3 percent.
Wichita State switched to different defenses throughout the next several possessions using man-to-man, zone and box-and-one to force the Tigers to attempt perimeter shots. This strategy helped the Shockers go on an 11-2 run to take a 20-12 lead.
Kendric Davis broke the run with a three to cut the Tigers’ deficit to five points at 20-15 heading into the third media timeout. At this point in the game, both teams were shooting in the low to mid 30 percent range with the difference being Wichita State getting to and connecting from the free throw stripe.
The Tigers entered the fouling bonus with 7:30 remaining in the half and Wichita State followed with 7:05 remaining in the half. After trading made free throws, the Tigers used the full-court press to force back-to-back turnovers leading to a transition dunk by Chandler Lawson and a layup by DeAndre Williams to cut the deficit to one point at 22-21.
The Tigers tied the game at 23 after two made free throws by Kendric Davis. Then, Kao had an incredible block on the defensive end and Elijah McCadden made a three to help the Tigers regain the lead at 26-23 as the teams headed into the final media timeout of the half.
Kendric Davis connected on his third three of the half to extend the lead for the Tigers before Wichita State responded with back-to-back threes of their own to cut the lead to two points at 31-29. After a missed opportunity to tie the game on a transition dunk by the Shockers, the Tigers made them pay with a corner three from Johnathan Lawson.
The Tigers scored another basket after a made free throw by the Shockers and got a defensive stop on the final possession of the first half to take a 36-30 lead into halftime. The Tigers ended the first half on a 24-10 run after falling behind by eight points with 8:16 remaining.
Kendric Davis scored 11 points with three three-pointers made and DeAndre Williams scored 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the first half to lead the way for the Tigers. The team held the Shockers to 28.6 percent shooting from the field and behind the arc and out-rebounded the Shockers 20-15.
2nd Half
The second half began with Kao getting his third block of the game and DeAndre Williams scoring a bucket to help the Tigers extend the lead. Following a three from the Shockers’ best player, Craig Porter Jr., the Tigers scored back-to-back baskets from their two best players, Davis and Williams, before Porter Jr. connected on another basket.
The Shockers’ second best player, Jaykwon Walton, joined in on the action with a mid-range basket before Keonte Kennedy connected on a three to extend the Tigers’ lead back out to 8 points at 45-37.
The Shockers returned to a zone defense after the media timeout but Keonte Kennedy made them pay with his second straight three-pointer to extend the Tigers’ lead into double digits at 48-37. The Tigers continued to be efficient on offense and extended the lead to as many as 13 points. Despite Memphis’s offensive success, the Shockers would not go away easily as they put together an 18-6 run to cut the lead to one.
Kendric Davis responded to the run by hitting a mid-range basket after the media timeout and DeAndre Williams scored a couple of baskets himself to go over 20 points for the game. Elijah McCadden then made a driving layup that resulted in an and-one to extend the lead back to six points at 65-59 with eight minutes remaining in the game.
Both teams began to trade baskets before a weird foul call that was reversed in favor of DeAndre Williams, which led to him hitting two free throws. Memphis’s suffocating defense and efficient offense was then able to extend the lead to 13 with under four minutes remaining.
Keonte Kennedy made another big time three-point shot to put the exclamation point on the victory for the Tigers as they earned their fourth conference win with a 88-78 victory over the Shockers.
Final Takeaway
This was the Tigers’ most complete AAC game played this season. DeAndre Williams imposed his will in this game with his best performance of the season. He scored a season-high 29 points and tied his career-high in rebounds with 15. Both he and Kendric Davis scored over 20 points as Davis finished with 20 points while shooting 4-of-5 from three-point range. Keonte Kennedy was the third guy tonight with a season-high 16 points and some timely made threes as he shot 4-of-6 from three-point range. Kao continued his solid defensive performances with five blocks. As a team, the Tigers shot 52.4 percent from three which was their best performance shooting from behind the arc this season. That was the type of performance the Tigers needed to keep their undefeated home record intact and keep pace in the AAC standings.
Next up, Memphis heads back on the road to face Cincinnati on Sunday, January 22nd at noon CST.