Memphis meltdown
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Rodney Carney elevated, glided through the lane and slammed home the exclamation point in the closing seconds Tuesday night as No. 4 Memphis handed No. 8 Gonzaga an 83-72 road loss before a sellout crowd of 18,208 at FedExForum.
Conference USA’s Preseason Player of the Year, Carney scored 17 points, and sophomore guard Darius Washington added 14 of his team-high 22 in the second half Tuesday to help Memphis rally from a six-point deficit with just over 11 minutes to play.
“We didn’t have a firm belief in our team defense like we did for 35 minutes,” Bulldogs coach Mark Few said. “But they’re a great team. They’ve got a lot of answers, a lot of athleticism and a lot of skill. They can hurt you in so many ways, whether its on the offensive boards, or on the drives or the kick-outs for 3s.
“We battled hard. I just don’t think we battled for a full 40, but I think a lot of that has to do with their talent and athleticism.”
Gonazaga (9-3), playing its fifth Top 25 opponent this season and second Top 10 opponent, had led, 62-59, on junior forward Adam Morrison’s hook in the lane over Carney with 9:31 left to play in the second half.
But Morrison, the nation’s second-leading scorer entering Tuesday’s game, didn’t score another point, while Memphis began a 24-8 scoring run over the next nine minutes to take a 13-point lead (83-70) on Carney’s two-handed jam in the lane with 29.7 seconds left.
“They just sucked in on me a little bit more and did a good job of not allowing me to get some easy looks,” Morrison said. “I wasn’t getting very many attempts up or what not, but I hit a 3-pointer (to end the first half) that kind of got me going. I was trying to get to the free-throw line (in the first half) and that got me going a little bit and it carried over a little bit to the second half, but I missed too many 8-footers in the lane. Part of that was Memphis’ defense.”
Memphis’ defense would hold Gonzaga to a season-low 34.4-percent shooting effort from the field.
“Again, we held them to 34 percent from the floor,” said Memphis coach John Calipari, whose Tigers (10-1) improved to 3-1 this season against Top 25 teams.
“(Gonzaga) killed us shooting free throws. They just killed us. We stopped them everywhere else.
“I told them at halftime, ‘They are rebounding and we are fouling too much,’ and they came in and started the (second) half great and did a good job.”
Gonzaga, which fell behind by as many as eight points (13-5) early, took its biggest lead of the first half with eight-tenths of a second remaining when Morrison knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give the Bulldogs a 40-35 advantage at the break.
Gonzaga led at halftime despite shooting just 32.3 percent (10 of 31) from the field, as Morrison scored 10 of his 21 first-half points from the charity stripe.
As a team, Gonzaga attempted 15 more free throws in the first half than Memphis, finishing 14 of 17 to help offset the Tigers’ 45.5-percent shooting clip from the field.
Still, Gonzaga never got ahead by more than six, and Antonio Anderson’s floater in the lane with 7:37 left ignited a 24-8 scoring run after Morrison’s hook shot had made it 62-59.
Morrison, coming off an 18-point outing in Gonzaga’s win over Saint Louis last week that dropped his scoring average to 27.5 points per game, finished with a game-high 34 points Tuesday.
“They’re as talented as anybody in the country, I think, because we’ve played (Connecticut), and that’s the No. 2 team,” Morrison said of the Tigers.
“(Memphis is) right up there. They’ll probably go pretty far this year.”
Memphis 83, Gonzaga 72
| FG | FT | Reb | |||||
| GU (9-3) | Min | M-A | M-A | O-T | A | PF | PTS |
| Knight | 9 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Mallon | 27 | 1-6 | 2-3 | 2-5 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Batista | 35 | 5-13 | 5-8 | 3-8 | 1 | 3 | 15 |
| Morrison | 37 | 9-20 | 12-12 | 2-5 | 3 | 2 | 34 |
| Raivio | 38 | 3-12 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 4 | 3 | 8 |
| Pargo | 15 | 0-4 | 2-2 | 0-6 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Altidor-Cespedes | 11 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Gurganious | 10 | 1-3 | 0-1 | 1-4 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Pendergraft | 18 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 3-8 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Totals | 200 | 22-64 | 21-26 | 14-42 | 15 | 22 | 72 |
Percentages: FG .344, FT .808. 3-Point Goals: 7-17, .412 (Morrison 4-6, Raivio 2-8, Altidor-Cespedes 1-1, Pargo 0-2). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 0. Turnovers: 11 (Batista 2, Raivio 2, Pargo 2, Knight, Mallon, Morrison, Altidor-Cespedes, Pendergraft). Steals: 4 (Raivio 2, Pendergraft 2). Technical Fouls: Morrison.
| FG | FT | Reb | |||||
| UM (10-1) | Min | M-A | M-A | O-T | A | PF | PTS |
| S.Williams | 28 | 5-15 | 3-5 | 3-11 | 2 | 3 | 14 |
| Dorsey | 21 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 3-8 | 1 | 5 | 4 |
| Douglas-Roberts | 30 | 4-7 | 1-2 | 1-3 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| Anderson | 26 | 3-6 | 1-2 | 1-5 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| Washington | 32 | 8-13 | 5-6 | 0-2 | 10 | 0 | 22 |
| W.Williams | 14 | 1-1 | 0-4 | 1-1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Dozier | 16 | 0-2 | 2-2 | 1-4 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Carney | 24 | 6-12 | 1-2 | 0-3 | 1 | 2 | 17 |
| Njoya | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Allen | 8 | 2-4 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| Totals | 200 | 31-63 | 13-25 | 11-42 | 18 | 21 | 83 |
Percentages: FG .492, FT .520. 3-Point Goals: 8-25, .320 (Carney 4-8, Douglas-Roberts 1-2, Washington 1-3, Allen 1-3, S.Williams 1-6, Anderson 0-3). Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots: 4 (Dorsey, Anderson, W.Williams, Dozier). Turnovers: 8 (Anderson 2, Washington 2, S.Williams, Dorsey, Douglas-Roberts, Allen). Steals: 4 (Anderson 3, Williams). Technical Fouls: S.Williams.
Halftime–Gonzaga 40, Memphis 35. A–18,208.