How did Memphis basketball come back to beat UAB? Simple—it couldn’t afford a loss.

The Tigers were staring disaster in the face once again.

They trailed the UAB Blazers by 22 points with 1:25 left in a first half that had gone completely wrong. Memphis had already been embarrassed by Andy Kennedy’s team earlier this season, but this was shaping up to be even worse.

The Blazers’ offensive attack was relentless, and their defensive prowess stifled Penny Hardaway’s club. They shot 67.6% from the field and 57.1% from the 3-point line in the first half, and went on a 41-19 run in nine minutes and 44 seconds. All the while, they held Memphis without a field goal for nearly seven minutes before the 1:03 mark in the opening period.

Memphis has found itself in bad situations before. It blew a 20-point lead to South Florida inside FedExForum on Jan. 18, which began a four-game losing streak. It suffered a back-breaking Quad 4 loss to Rice 13 days later in the same building. A few weeks later, it lost back-to-back road tilts at North Texas and at SMU by an average of 18 points, which most people thought was the nail in the coffin for a once-promising season.

But the Tigers weren’t ready to die just yet. They obliterated Charlotte in their next outing, and then avenged last year’s NCAA Tournament loss against FAU. After that, they beat the East Carolina Pirates so bad that walking the plank seemed like a preferable option. Hardaway’s team was suddenly back on the NCAA Tournament bubble, and in good position to earn a double-bye to the American Athletic Conference (AAC) Tournament quarterfinals.

All that work, however, looked like it was all for nothing. Memphis’ season seemed as good as dead, and UAB was gearing up to deal the final blow. But Jahvon Quinerly couldn’t let the Tigers’ story end like that. The fifth-year senior inserted life back into his team with a 7-0 run to finish the first half, including a buzzer-beating halfcourt heave that cut the Blazers’ lead to 15 points.

“I felt us reeling a little bit early, and JQ was the only one that had rhythm. I went to him and was like, ‘You have to carry us until everybody else comes along,'” Hardaway said postgame.

Quinerly took his coach’s challenge to heart.

“He [saw] that I got going and I was getting downhill consistently, and he just told me to keep going. When he gives me his word like that, it makes it a lot easier to make plays for myself. And then organically, I’m able to make reads to my teammates because guys gotta stop me from scoring,” he said. “It definitely boosted my confidence for sure.”

The 6-foot-1 guard’s little rally began a resounding comeback for Memphis, and simultaneously set an avalanche of disaster upon UAB.

The Tigers came out of halftime with all gas and no breaks, and left the Blazers permanently shell-shocked within minutes. They used a 13-0 run (20-0 going back to the first half) in less than four minutes to cut UAB’s lead to 63-61 with 16:43 left to play. Kennedy got so incensed that he got himself ejected from the contest with back-to-back technical fouls.

“There’s just so much pressure all the time on [coaches], you just understand what he’s going through,” Hardaway said. “I’ve never gotten to the level to where I’ve gotten kicked out, but you get so frustrated sometimes. And at that moment, he just couldn’t hold it.”

Memphis then opened things up with a 29-9 run in 9:34 to take a 90-72 lead with 7:06 left to play, and UAB never recovered. David Jones and Nae’Qwan Tomlin combined for 39 points in the second half on 14-for-20 shooting. Jones led the Tigers with 32 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals for the game. Tomlin wasn’t too far behind with his 28 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals. And Quinerly finished the contest with 25 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals.

The Tigers outscored UAB 67-26 in the final 21:15 of the contest, and won the game 106-87.

“My [halftime] speech was, ‘We didn’t come this far to lose this game. We fought ourselves back into a situation that we can’t falter. We can’t give it away at home.’ The guys rallied around that and we won,” Hardaway said. “I think the energy is so good with this group. Everybody’s locked in on one goal. Everybody’s kinda rowing the boat in the same direction. No negativity, nothing negative in the huddles. Everybody’s fighting for one another the entire time out there on the court.”

Jones, the Tigers’ leading scorer, received quite the surprise during Senior Day festivities pregame. His sister, Flora Elena, made an unscheduled appearance at midcourt during his portion of the ceremony. And Jones knew he had to put on a show for her against the Blazers.

“[It meant] a lot, because I haven’t seen her in a while,” Jones said postgame. “I didn’t talk to her on the phone before the game. I called her but she didn’t answer. She said she was at work. So, she basically lied to me…I cried a little bit, but I had to wipe it off because I don’t like to cry in front of people.”

Sunday’s game was one where Memphis (22-8, 11-6 AAC) would’ve likely fallen apart not too long ago. It would’ve rolled over and gotten blown out by almost 30 points like it did at SMU. It would’ve kept its foot off the gas and dropped yet another game against an inferior opponent. Its season would’ve almost certainly been over.

But things are different now. The Tigers are now engaged towards each other rather than indifferent. This team is now about unity instead of individual success. And though Memphis may not have a number next to its name like it did earlier this season, it’s undeniably playing its best basketball of the year.

A 22-point comeback was something that once seemed impossible for this group, but the Tigers—the second team in the country since 2010 to win a game by least 15 points after trailing by at least 20—seemingly made it happen with just a few words on Sunday.

“We really spoke this comeback into existence, because not for one second did anybody’s confidence waver at all. I feel like we knew we were gonna come back. It was only a matter of time,” Quinerly said.