Tiger defense fuels Memphis victory over Tulane

It wasn't easy, but the Tigers shut down a scrappy Tulane team in the second half to run away with a 82-64 victory in New Orleans.

"Always good to get a win," head coach Josh Pastner said. "That was a grind-out victory. That was not pretty."

Memphis struggled defensively in the first half, allowing the Green Wave to shoot 52 percent from the floor, and went into the half trailing 33-32.

"They had more energy than us to start the game," Pastner said. "Disappointed in how we played those first 30 minutes. We've got to be better than that."

The game remained close to start the second half as well, with both teams trading buckets for the first seven minutes. After trailing for much of the game and struggling to contain Tulane's leading scorers, Ricky Tarrant and Josh Davis, Pastner made a key defensive switch that changed the course of the game.

After Tulane's Tre Drye hit a free throw to tie the game at 46-all with 13:35 remaining, Pastner told his players to play a 1-3-1 zone defense. Following that change, Memphis went on an 11-0 run, breaking the game open and taking control.

"I'm a real aggressive player," Barton said. "And I think the 1-3-1 allows me to be aggressive. In man-to-man, if your man doesn't have the ball, you're really just standing around. The 1-3-1 just lets me run wild and run free, which is the best part of my game."

Tulane cut the lead down to as little as five, but Memphis kept its composure and clamped down defensively, refusing to allow the Green Wave back into the game. Tulane was hampered by 20 turnovers, which led to 28 Memphis points, including a stretch of three-straight giveaways immediately after the Tigers went to the zone.

The Tigers shot 34-of-55 (61.8 percent) for the game, including a stellar 20-of-27 (74.1 percent) in the second half. Will Barton led the team with 20 points and nine rebounds. Tarik Black added 18 points, Chris Crawford had 13 points and Joe Jackson and Wesley Witherspoon each finished with 10. Crawford also had six assists and five steals.

Free throw shooting was a problem for the Tigers throughout the game. Memphis shot 10-of-20 from the charity stripe, including a couple of misses on the front end of one-and-ones. Memphis came into the game shooting a healthy 71.9 percent from the line, and hit 24-of-28 free throws against Xavier on Feb. 4, but that hot shooting didn't carry over into this game.

Pastner credited the Tigers' second-half turnaround to improved energy.

"If you don't have energy, you can get beat," he said. "I don't care what level it is, or what you're doing in life, if you don't have enthusiastic energy, passionate energy, you put yourself in a position to take a loss, in any area of life."

The Tigers move to 19-7 (9-2 C-USA), and remain tied for first place in the conference after Southern Miss beat third-place Tulsa last night. Memphis next takes on UTEP in a rematch of last year's C-USA tournament championship game.