SMU Beats No. 22 Memphis
DALLAS (AP) — Nic Moore had 14 points with 10 assists, and keyed a game-turning run to start the second half, and SMU stayed undefeated at home by beating No. 22 Memphis 87-72 Saturday.
The Tigers (16-5, 6-3 American Athletic) lost a conference road game for the first time in two years.
Moore had an assist on Markus Kennedy’s tiebreaking layup right after halftime. Moore then added 3-pointers in the 10-2 spurt in just over 2 minutes that put SMU (17-5, 6-3) ahead to stay and in control. Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown’s Mustangs pushed the lead to 56-36 with 7:11 left when Sterling Brown made consecutive 3-pointers.
Kennedy had 21 points on 10-of-10 shooting and 15 rebounds for his sixth career double-double. Brown had 15 points.
Memphis, which moved with SMU from Conference USA to the AAC this season, had won 19 consecutive league road games since a C-USA loss at Southern Mississippi exactly two years ago Saturday. The Tigers’ record is 27 consecutive conference road victories, a streak that ended with another loss at SMU four years ago.
Joe Jackson led Memphis with 22, while Geron Johnson had 18 and
Michael Dixon Jr. 13. Dominic Woodson had 11 rebounds.
Nick Russell had 11 points for the Mustangs, and Keith Frazier 10.
SMU is 11-0 at home this season, including all five games since moving back into its newly renovated Moody Coliseum last month. The Mustangs re-opened their campus home with a 74-65 win Jan. 4 over then-No. 17 UConn, which was their first victory over a ranked opponent since December 2003, and their first campus sellout since two years before that.
Now they have two victories over Top 25 teams in their two sellouts in a four-week span.
The Mustangs have won six of seven overall. They were coming off a 78-71 loss Tuesday night at USF. Their other conference losses are at No. 12 Louisville and No. 13 Cincinnati, which visits Moody Coliseum next Saturday.
Memphis had won six of seven, including a four-game winning streak with those wins by an average margin of 17 points.
The Tigers built a 23-15 lead with just under 7 minutes left in the first half when Johnson passed ahead to Jackson for an easy layup to cap an 11-0 run.
The first nine points for the Tigers in that stretch came during a 2-minute stretch when SMU had four turnovers that led directly to seven points.
Jackson had a steal and a breakaway layup to put Memphis up 16-15 with 9:27 left. Less than 1 1/2 minutes later, Jackson had another steal and passed ahead to Johnson for a fastbreak layup.
But SMU tied the game at 29 when Moore followed his own miss with a short jumper with 6 seconds left in the first half, and he pushed them ahead after the break.
The Mustangs are back in action Thursday, Feb. 6 when they host Temple at Moody Coliseum. Tipoff is slated for 7:00 p.m. CT and tickets can be purchased online at smumustangs.com/tickets.
