Memphis, TN- Sunday afternoon’s matchup between FAU and Memphis was a thriller that saw both sides exchanging leads and playing hard nosed basketball. In the end, however, it was the Memphis Tigers who defended their home court and used big moments in the second half to power through FAU, 78-74.
Vlad Goldin was perfect from the field, 9 of 9 and putting up 22 points, but it was not enough to match the offensive outputs from David Jones and Nae’Qwan Tomlin. Jones had 25 points, 20 of which came in the second half, and Tomlin had 21 and was a physical force against Vlad Goldin down low.
Goldin was the offensive catalyst today for FAU, being unstoppable at points, however outside of his play the offense was inconsistent. Memphis was able to get scoring and high-level intensity from a variety of different sources, and at times during the game that was the case for FAU, however outside of Goldin no one was able to consistently put-up points through the entire game.
“I want to begin by giving Memphis credit. I thought they played extremely hard and determined basketball and came up with big offensive rebounds at the right times. Also, very proud of our group, we battled and fought. We need to clean a few things up as we see these guys within the next couple of weeks. Back to the drawing board, overall pleased with our effort, but we just have to just take care of the basketball and be a little more physical with our blockouts,” Coach Dusty May said after the game,
Early on in the first half it was evident another battle between these two teams would be underway. Memphis started the game guns blazing, shooting 6 of their first 8 baskets from deep, converting on 2.
FAU started out 4/7 from the field over the first 5 minutes and it was looking like the game plan was to let Vlad be physical against the Dandridge-less tigers. He had 4 points and 2 offensive rebounds in the first 5 minutes, and his second chance basket with 15:27 to play gave FAU an early 9-8 lead.
The back-and-forth battle continued through the first 10 minutes of this game, as FAU was briefly able to extend it to a 2-possession game, 12-8, on an Alijah Martin triple with 14:39 to play, however that was as large as it would get early on.
FAU and Goldin were able to win the paint battle early, as they had an early 11-6 advantage on the boards, and 3 of those were Vlad on the offensive glass. He hit another second chance basket, this time a hook shot, and FAU led 15-12 with 12:04 to play.
The game started to open up a little bit for FAU following that. The Owls went on a 9-2 run in a little over 4 minutes, and a Nelly layup with 6:05 to play gave FAU their largest lead of the half, 24-16.
A game of runs developed after that, as Memphis stormed back. Over the next 4 minutes the Tigers went on an 11-3 run, and an-and-1 basket for Jahvon Quinnerly tied it up at 27, with 1:50 to play in the half.
Goldin scored the final 4 points of the half for FAU, 2 free throws and a layup, and David Jones hit a triple to make the score 31-30 FAU at the break. Goldin had 12 points and 5 rebounds and didn’t miss a shot during the first half. His physicality was on full display in this game, and this game was another successful one for him, after the game Goldin explained what’s led to his recent stretch of success.
“After one of the last games. I talked to coach, we talked about how I started the season and we saw some differences in how I’m playing now. We agreed I need to be more physical, that’s what I try to do, and what I’ll keep doing,” Goldin said after the game.
The battle ensued in the second half, as Memphis was able to grab a 4-point lead, 43-39, with 16:10 to play and had a firm hold on momentum. Memphis was getting a team effort all game, but especially to start the second half as 4 players all hit multiple baskets, to help the Tigers grab an early second half lead.
Alijah Martin was doing his best to keep the Owls in it alongside Vlad Goldin, he had 8 points through the first 10 minutes of the second half. He extended 2 straight possessions with offensive rebounds, and it spread to his teammates. He grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to make it 46-48, a possession later he got another offensive board which led to a Johnell Davis bucket which made it 48-50, and on the next possesion Nick Boyd tied it up at 50 on a layup with 11:05 to play.
David Jones and Nae’Qwan Tomlin were quick to go to work after that, as they scored 5 straight quickly to jolt the lead back to 5, 57-52 with 9:51 to play. Tomlin has a bit of history with FAU, playing against them with K-State in the elite 8 last year, after the game Coach Penny Hardaway spoke on his big performance tonight.
“His energy was amazing. That’s probably the most energy I’ve seen from him all season. He had a personal vendetta against them, they lost against them in the elite 8 to go to the final 4. When you play against FAU, they can kind of get under your skin so, he was looking forward to this game. You could tell from the beginning he was ready to go, they are a good team, and he came out today and knew that we needed him to go to another level because Malcolm wasn’t playing, and we knew Jordan was going to be very limited. He came out and gave us an amazing game, 5 offensive rebounds, 21 points. Overall, he’s a big part of what we’re doing going forward because we need his scoring ability, his rebounding and shot blocking to help us move forward,” Hardaway said after the game.
Johnell Davis got going after that stretch for FAU, he hit his first triple of the game to cut the lead to 58-55 with 9:28 to play, and a few possessions later hit back-to-back layups to make it 62 a piece with 7:21 to play.
Over the next 4 minutes Memphis went on an 11-1 run and completely turned the tables on this game. David Jones was getting anything he wanted, and his pull-up jumper with 3:36 to play made it 73-63 Memphis, their largest lead of the game. FAU coach Dusty May explained what he believed led to Jones being so successful in the second half.
“He has such an ability to find creases. He does a great job at initiating contact and playing off that contact. I thought he was extremely powerful in the paint, he was able to get the rebounds, there are a lot of college basketball players who are able to get offensive rebounds and not convert in crowds. He was able to do that at a high level tonight, I thought once we had our defense set I thought we did a solid job on him, but he was able to get out in transition in the open court, he’s a freight train when he’s coming at you with a head of steam and he’s tough to defend,”
It wouldn’t be an FAU/Memphis matchup, without late drama and that’s exactly what was in store. Over the next 3 minutes, Davis scored 8/11 points for FAU and almost brought them back, single handedly.
He cut the deficit to 3, 75-72, with 56 seconds to play. FAU got a stop on the ensuing defensive possession and left them with a chance to tie. Memphis played one of their best defensive possessions on that position and forced a difficult top of the key triple from Brandon Weatherspoon that rimmed out. FAU attempted to play the foul game down the stretch, but it was to no avail as the Tigers closed out FAU, 78-74. After the game, Dusty May explained what he saw on that last chance FAU had at tying.
“We wanted to get downhill on a broken floor. Anytime a team picks you up full court, you have to weigh the decision of do you want to attack with 94 feet or against 35 feet, and we chose to attack against 94 feet,” May said after the game.
It could have been easy to fall flat, as there was locker room turmoil with Malcolm Dandridge prior to the game and overall the team wasn’t playing their best basketball as of late. David Jones and Nae’Qwan Tomlin led the way tonight for Memphis, and they said after the game it was Coach Hardaway hyping them up before the game that got them playing with such high intensity.
“We watched a video before the game, about the game from last year. Malcolm and Jayden were here last year, they said let’s get them out of the gym early because they’re not like that,” David Jones said, “He defintley wanted to turn us up, he played a motivational video, and then after they beat Kansas State they were in the locker room playing the Low down song which is what Kansas state was popping for last year, and so he showed that too and that was in the back of my mind,” Tomlin added.
It’s back to the drawing board for FAU, who will have some off days before taking on Tulane at home on Saturday March 2nd. For Memphis they are rolling and will take on ECU on the road Thursday.
