Lomax and Kennedy Spark Run in Tiger Victory 

The wake-up call for the Memphis Tigers basketball team came with 6:27 left in the first half of a 10:00 AM tip-off against the Stanford Cardinal in the ESPN Events Invitational with the Tigers trailing 14-11.  That call was one Keonte Kennedy throwing down a monstrous dunk worthy of ESPN’s own Top Ten Plays of the Day.  The dunk sparked a 15-0 run over a 5:36 span that flipped the defensive slugfest into the Tigers favor in route to a 56-48 victory over their Pac-12 Conference foe. 

Unhappy with the early deficit which saw Memphis miss numerous layups, Coach Penny Hardaway turned to his circle trap down 14-9, forcing six turnovers during the decisive stretch as the Tigers imposed their will on Stanford.  Alex Lomax led the charge with 7 of his 12 points during the run.  So good was the Memphis defense on this day, Stanford’s leading scorer on the season, Michael Jones was held scoreless on 0-7 shooting.  But Jones wasn’t the only player on the court to struggle.  Memphis was led in scoring once again by Kendric Davis with 14 on the day but he was a not so good 5-18 from the field. 

With the shots not falling for Davis, others had to step up.  Chandler Lawson was on the court for 28 minutes and grabbed 8 rebounds to go along with his 8 points on the day.  Deandre Williams, who struggled in this tournament with foul trouble, was able to stay on the court for 35 minutes and had a well-rounded game with 12 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and a couple of  key plays late in the game with Stanford closing the gap down to 4.  Williams made a short jumper to extend it to 6 then Davis threw a pocket pass to Williams through two Stanford defenders that looked like a sure turnover, only for Williams to reach out, secure the ball and jam it home to put the Tigers up 8 with under a minute left. 

Worth noting, the rotation was shortened significantly in this game for Memphis with Malcolm Dandridge only seeing 13 minutes.  Dandridge was huge in those thirteen minutes though on the defensive end with his switches forcing Stanford away from the bucket in addition to him adding 4 points.  Elijah McCadden also was limited to 13 minutes and Kao Akobundu-Ehiogu only saw three minutes of playing time.  The only non-starter to see significant time was Kennedy who played 24 minutes but was limited due to foul trouble.  Kennedy ended the day with 6 points. 

Post-game, Coach Hardaway was pleased with what he saw.  “Coming in they were bigger.”  “The guys, they fought hard.”  “You can’t do nothing but tip your hat to these kids.  They are fighting hard for us.  They’re fighting hard for me.” 

Memphis held Stanford to a season low 29.3% shooting on the day.  The Cardinal were slightly better from beyond the arc on 10-33 for 30.3%.  Memphis was 21-54 from the field for 38.9% and 6-18 from deep for 33.3%.  The taller Stanford squad had 41 rebounds to the Tigers 35 and Memphis forced 15 turnovers on the day while only committing 10 of their own. 

Memphis improved to 4-2 on the season while Stanford fell to 3-4.  The Tigers return home for only the second time thus far on the season for a Wednesday night 7:00 tip-off against 4-3 North Alabama.   

Player of the Game:  Alex Lomax