Kendric Davis leads Memphis to dominant win against his former team

The Memphis Tigers pulled off an impressive road victory against the Cincinnati Bearcats this past Sunday to continue their rise up the American Athletic Conference (AAC) standings. As they looked to keep the momentum of a three-game winning streak, Kendric Davis’s old team came to town for an AAC battle.

1st Half

SMU began the game hot out the gate as they connected on three of their first four threes to jump out to an early 13-12 lead. Kendric Davis countered with eight quick points himself to keep Memphis in the running despite three early fouls from Elijah McCadden.

Kendric Davis continued his early dominance as he scored or assisted on the Tigers’ first 20 points as they came out of the first media timeout on a 10-2 run to take a 22-15 lead. Kendric Davis was shooting 100 percent from the floor with 11 points and four assists at the 11:33 mark against his former team.

Davis continued to put on a clinic with a dominating first-half performance leading the Tigers with 16 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds as they led by as many as 24 points en route to a 50-32 lead at halftime. 37 of the Tigers’ 50 points were scored or assisted by Kendric Davis. Jayden Hardaway chipped in eight points in his second game back from injury in the first half.

2nd Half

The second half began much like the first half with Memphis turning up the pressure and scoring in transition but with the others getting more involved in the action as Keonte Kennedy, Jayden Hardaway, and DeAndre Williams all scored double figures. Davis quickly got his second double-double of the season with his 10th assist as the Tigers extended their lead to 74-46.

The Tigers lead was as many as 29 points en route to a 99-84 victory to move to 6-2 in the AAC. Davis fell just four points short of scoring 2,000 for his career with 25 points to go along with 11 assists and 7 rebounds. In total, five Memphis players scored in double figures: Keonte Kennedy with 16 points, DeAndre Williams with 13 points, Jayden Hardaway with 12 points, and Chandler Lawson with 12 points.

Final Takeaway

The Tigers took care of business like a probable NCAA Tournament team should by dominating SMU from start to finish. Davis played like the star he is against his former team, and his teammates followed his lead in arguably the Tigers’ best performance as they scored their most points in regulation. With the win a milestone was hit as Penny Hardaway got the 100th win of his coaching career.

Next up, Memphis travels to Tulsa, Oklahoma to take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on Sunday, January 29th at 4:00 pm CST.