It has been an up and down few years for University of Memphis junior guard Joe Jackson, but the junior who was once as sporadic as gas prices has come into his own as the season has unfolded. Wednesday night, Jackson's stellar play continued as he dropped in a career-high 26 points in the Tigers' [17-3, 6-0 Conference USA] 75-68 win on the road against the East Carolina Pirates.
In addition to setting a career high in points and helping the Tigers defeat a much-improved Pirates squad, Jackson achieved a much greater feat. With 12:49 left in the game, junior guard Geron Johnson grabbed the rebound off an ECU miss and quickly pushed the ball up the floor. He found an open Jackson, who hit a three-point jumper in stride to become the 48th player in the program's history to join the 1,000-point club.
The junior's 26 points also extended his streak of double-figure games to 16, which ranks fifth all-time in program history behind former Tigers Darius Washington, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Rodney Carney and Antonio Burks, who holds the record at 23 consecutive games.
So of course, with all of the milestones he reached in one game, Jackson was the man who ignited the Tigers to the victory. The two teams battled tooth and nail for much of the first half, with the largest lead going to the Pirates at just six points. Memphis trailed the majority of the first half, but were able to take a 28-27 lead into the locker room after sophomore guard-forward Adonis Thomas converted on a layup and then slammed it home with authority after the Pirates missed a chance to retake the lead.
The beginning of the second half remained close for the first five minutes until Jackson commenced taking over the game. With Memphis up 35-33 with 15:12 remaining in the game, Jackson scored eight of the Tigers next 11 points on a layup and two long range threes to extend their advantage to 46-37. Memphis used the momentum to take control of the game and build a 71-60 lead with one minute to go.
Everything seemed to be in hand for the Tigers, but the Pirates made one last push to make Memphis sweat. After senior forward D.J. Stephens' dunk gave Memphis the 11-point lead, ECU's Akeem Richmond drained a three-point jumper to make the score 71-63. The Pirates then fouled Thomas, who missed both free throws, and took the ball down the court and quickly scored a basket to trim the lead to six. On perhaps one of Jackson's only mistakes of the night, he turned the ball over and the Pirates' Prince Williams converted the basket and free throw on junior Chris Crawford's foul with 16 seconds left. However, Crawford made up for it on the other end with two clutch free throws as the Tigers hung on to beat the Pirates 75-68.
Jackson's 26 points led all scorers, while Johnson added 13 and Crawford chipped in with 11. Ty Armstrong paced the Pirates with 18 points and nine rebounds. The Tigers held the Pirates to just 4-18 [22.2 percent] shooting from downtown and dominated the glass, outrebounding ECU 46-29. The win gave Memphis its 11th straight.
The Tigers have a chance to extend the streak to 12 games Saturday when the Tulsa Golden Hurricane makes a visit to the Bluff City. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m.
