By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
Playing with underwhelming intensity in front of their bewildered fans early, the Memphis Tigers eventually made some adjustments and pulled away for a 95-69 victory Sunday night at the FedEx Forum, dealing the UTSA Roadrunners a program record-tying 11th straight loss.
Even though the Roadrunners competed on almost even terms for the first 19 minutes of the game, they eventually broke down in the second half. As a result, they tied the program’s record for consecutive losses set in the spring of the 2022-23 season.
Guards Dug McDaniel and Sincere Parker led the Tigers. Parker hit seven of 10 shots from the floor and scored 22 points. McDaniel, a 5-foot-11 transfer from Kansas State, ran the show with 18 points, six rebounds and six assists.
Not only did McDaniel rule in the floor game and on the boards, he also supplied long-distance shooting, hitting four of the Tigers’ 11 three pointers.
Fast-improving freshman Dorian Hayes pace the Roadrunners with 17 points. Hayes, from Houston-area Ridge Point High School, knocked down five 3-point shots. Walkon LJ Brown emerged as a surprise contributor with 14 points to match Jamir Simpson. Austin Nunez had 13 points and three assists.
Baboucarr Njie had six rebounds, six assists and four blocked shots in 34 minutes. The 6-foot-6 sophomore from Dayton, Ohio, scored six points on two of nine shooting.
UTSA coach Austin Claunch said the game started to slip away at the end of the half. It happened when a couple of empty offensive possessions led to five straight Memphis points and a 10-point Memphis lead at intermission.
“The last minute of the half, a little 5-0 spurt, just changes the feeling of the game,” Claunch said. “It goes from five to 10. We come out in the second half and we battled for awhile … It was 14 at the under 12 (timeout).
“Listen, when you’re playing catch up at the end against a team like that, it’s going to get away from you. If you have to run around and try to trap, they’re going to score at will, which is why the score ended up being what it was.”
Records
UTSA 4-14, 0-6
Memphis 9-8, 4-1
Coming up
UTSA at North Texas, Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Notable
Both Dorian Hayes and LJ Brown are the sons of former NBA players. Hayes is the son of Chuck Hayes, who played 11 season in the NBA, including for the Houston Rockets, the Sacramento Kings and the Toronto Raptors. Brown’s father is Devin Brown, who played in high school in San Antonio at West Campus High School and in college for four years at UTSA. He spent eight years in the NBA, including 2005 with the Spurs when they won a title.
The Roadrunners played again without 7-foot center Stanley Borden, who has been out the past 15 games with a hand injury. The Duke transfer played limited minutes in only the first three games of the season. Four days ago, it appeared he might play in a UTSA home game against Rice. On game day, he was listed as questionable, and then he suited up and went through pre-game warmups. But, ultimately, he did not play against the Owls or on Saturday against the Tigers in Memphis … Seven-foot-one center Aaron Bradshaw, who has started nine of 15 games for Memphis, did not play against UTSA. Bradshaw, a transfer from Ohio State, is averaging 8.2 points and 3.5 rebounds.
First half
The Tigers outscored the Roadrunners 5-0 in the last 49 seconds before intermission to take a 43-33 lead.
But even though the Tigers held the advantage, their fans weren’t thrilled, as they never were able to pull away from the last-place team in the American Conference.
Some of that came as a result of sloppy play by the Tigers, who turned it over eight times and sometimes couldn’t stop the Roadrunners.
UTSA played well offensively at home last week against Rice, and that rhythm seemed to carry over in stretches of play against Memphis.