FORT WORTH, Texas — A slow start quickly turned into an up and down battle between the Tigers and the SMU Mustangs.
Memphis fell to the Mustangs twice in the regular season, however on Saturday in the AAC Semifinals led by Alex Lomax and Landers Nolley II, both finishing with 12 points on the night, the Tigers got the better of SMU 70-63.
"And with A-Lo nothing surprised me about him. He's a winner. We always talk about winners winning. He just makes winning plays the entire game," said Hardaway.
Hundreds of Memphis fans traveled to Fort Worth, TX for the showdown. Jalen Duren in early in the second half went down with an apparent wrist injury and exited the court to be evaluated.
After the game head coach Penny Hardaway told reporters the injury, although painful for Duren, was not one that trainers believed to be severe.
"Yeah. When I went over to Jalen, he was crying. I was like, Oh, my God. This has to be bad because he's tough. And he was like, My shoulder. Then he was like, I can't feel my hand. I was like, Is anything broke? I'm like the doctor, I'm checking him out to make sure nothing was broken. When nothing was broken, I said, Come on, get up. It's time to get up. Nothing's broken," said Hardaway.
Senior forward DeAndre Williams fouled out early in the second half, however Duren returned shortly after.
SMU's AAC Play of the Year, Kendrick Davis, not able to find a rhythm today finishing with 12 point, while going 3-13 from the field.
Meanwhile Memphis outrebounded SMU 48-25.
"For us, we just kept the ball in the same players' hand and they capitalized. They missed a lot of small shots, little bunnies around the rim. Missed a lot of shots. It was winning time and they made baskets in the time that we needed them to make them. They had missed them the entire time, and then finally started making them at the end. We ran the same plays, they just capitalized on them," said Hardaway.
Memphis is now headed to the AAC Championship against Houston, tip-off is scheduled 2:15pm CT at Dickies Arena.