Tim Hardaway Jr. shines as Michigan Wolverines cruise past Memphis Tigers 73-61: NCAA Basketball
Tim Hardaway Jr. hammered a game-high 21 points, seven rebounds and five assists to power Michigan Wolverines past Memphis Tigers, 73-61, in the opening round of the Maui Invitational on November 21 at Lahaina Civic Center. With
this win, Michigan will head to Tuesday semi-finals against Duke.
“We are really pleased we could come away with a win today,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “Memphis presents some very big challenges. They are a very good defence. We haven’t seen anything like that.”
Wolverines’ sophomore got to the line 10 times and ended on 6 for 13 shooting from the field. Trey Burke has the other major contributor for Michigan with 14 points, four assists and two rebounds in the victory.
Charles Carmouche was the only player for Memphis who reached double figures with 14 points to go along with four rebounds and two steals.
Back in Maui for the first time since 1998, Michigan came out firing and ended on a 27 for 51 (52.9 percent) shooting from the field and 13 for 18 (72.2 percent) from the free throw line. Memphis, meanwhile, shot just 19 for 57
(33.3 percent) from the floor and 19 for 26 (73.1 percent) from the line.
Michigan also annihilated the more athletic Memphis on the glass, beating them 36-23 in rebounds. They came out in the attack mode and held an 18-11 lead early. The Tigers then used their defensive pressure and converted the seven-point
deficit into a 31-27 lead with three minutes to go in the first half. Memphis did not sit back though and took control with a 10-0 run to go up 37-31 at halftime.
The Wolverines built on their late first half momentum and carved out a 53-41 lead, capped by Eso Akunne's shot from downtown. Once in the double figure lead, they didn’t look back and never allowed the Tigers to get any closer
than nine points the rest of the way.
“They hit some big shots, we tried to speed them up on some things, and we turned it over,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner said of their sloppy basketball down the stretch. “But in the end, we didn’t make some shots we needed to hit.
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