This afternoon, Wes Miller and the Bearcats (14-6, 5-2 AAC) welcomed in Penny Hardaway and the Memphis Tigers (14-5, 4-2 AAC) to Fifth Third Arena for a snowy AAC showdown. The Bearcats entered today on a three-game winning streak, as they looked to continue the momentum going in the early stretches of conference play. The Tigers on the other hand have won their last two games after falling to Central Florida last week in double overtime.
The Tigers are led by graduate guard Kendric Davis. Davis entered today averaging nearly 21 points per game, on 45% shooting, ranking in the Top 15 scorers in all of college basketball. Davis, was named the 2021-2022 AAC Player of the Year last season at SMU. Davis, a known scorer is coming off a 25 point performance the last time he faced the Bearcats where he went just 6-18 from the field, but (13-14) from the free throw line.
Something to keep an eye on.
David DeJulius vs Kendric Davis – We have seen David DeJulius have some stellar defensive performances in his Bearcat career to date. However, today’s challenge might be the biggest one yet, just due to the nature of this game. Davis, has proven he can score on all three level’s and really change the game when he gets going, and we have seen that over the course of the three seasons at SMU.
The Bearcats would strike first after Landers Nolley wasted no time against his former team after knocking down an early three. The Bearcats would find themselves in foul trouble early as Landers Nolley and Kendric Davis would get offsetting technical fouls in the opening minute, as the two exchanged some words early. Nolley would pick up his second foul on a questionable flop call with 17:34 remaining in the first half. Something the Bearcats were hoping they could avoid and would force Wes Miller to his bench early.
Kendric Davis, on the other hand was issued a “class B” technical for a flop after a three-point attempt, but Davis looked to come down and turn that left ankle and was in a lot of pain on the Memphis bench. The Tigers would go on a 12-0 run early before a Deandre Williams technical foul shifted the momentum as they held the Bearcats without a field goal for almost six minutes after the early three from Nolley. However, the Bearcats would respond with an eight-point run of their own after the Williams technical foul. The ball was starting to move for the Bearcats as DeJulius found a wide-open Viktor Lakhin inside for an easy dunk to make this a 12-11 game at the under 12 media timeouts.
The Bearcats saw this one open back up in favor of the Tigers after a 5 point run from the Tigers off two turnovers led to easy buckets for the Tigers. Wes Miller was forced to call an early timeout after a Keontae Kennedy three, gave the Tigers their biggest lead of the day as they led the Bearcats 22-14 with 9:13 remaining in the first half.
The Bearcats were struggling to get anything going offensively, but were finding ways to get to the stripe as DeJulius would use the pump fake to get to the foul line for eight easy points in the first 16 minutes of this one. However, The Tigers continued to rip the Bearcats defense open with back door cuts, resulting in easy layups. Wes Miller was forced to his bench as Mika Adams-Woods picked up his third foul with 4:56 remaining in the first half after an offensive foul in transition. The Bearcats would look for a huge final segment as they trailed the Tigers 34-22 with 3:17 remaining in the first half.
The Tigers would take a huge 42-32 lead heading into halftime after Deandre Williams beat the buzzer. The story of the first half was the early struggles on both ends of the floor. The Bearcats defense was getting sliced open as the Tigers were doing a great job cutting to the basket for easy layups. The Bearcats found themselves held scoreless for the first 6 minutes of the game roughly after the opening possession. Penny Hardaway and the Tigers took advantage and went on a 12-1 run as that was the difference maker in the early minutes. The Bearcats were led by Viktor Lakhin who had 10 points, on (5-of-5 shooting), and was a huge mismatch inside. DeJulius, also had 10 points (eight of those from the free throw line). Overall, the Bearcats have to find a way to contain Deandre Williams and Kendric Davis as both were in double digits for the Tigers.
