Free throws, turnovers costly in Memphis basketball's overtime loss to Tulane
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Tulane's Kevin Cross delivered a strike to a wide-open Tylan Pope under the basket with 20 seconds left in overtime.
Pope's go-ahead layup gave the Green Wave enough to outlast the Memphis basketball team 90-89 Saturday at FedExForum. The loss snapped the Tigers' (17-6, 7-3 AAC) five-game winning streak and their 16-game home winning streak.
Memphis got the ball with 8.7 seconds left on the clock, but Kendric Davis' 3-point attempt missed the mark. Tulane (15-7, 8-3) moves into third place in league play.
Davis led the Tigers with 26 points, while DeAndre Williams provided 19 points and a career-high 17 rebounds.
Jalen Cook's 25 points led the Green Wave, who completed the season sweep against Memphis for the first time in the series since 1982-83.
Here are four takeaways from Saturday's game:
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Struggling at the stripe
Free throws were problematic for both teams Saturday.
Tulane got its issues out of the way early – going 4-for-11 at the stripe in the first half – but connected on 7 of its 10 attempts in the second.
Memphis was 11-of-13 in the first half. But the Tigers hit just 1 of 6 in the second, missing several critical free throws down the stretch. Memphis was also just 4-for-7 at the line in overtime.
The Tigers were 16-of-26 in the game.
Tulane makes Tigers pay
Memphis came into Saturday’s game in a good place from a ball-security standpoint. In the Tigers’ last four games, they had not committed more than 13.
It was a different story against the Green Wave. Memphis finished with 22 turnovers, 15 of which were forced by Tulane steals.
Further exacerbating the issue, the Green Wave capitalized on Memphis’ miscues by scoring 30 points off turnovers.
A rebounding clinic
Last time out, Memphis out-rebounded Tulsa by 14 – a season-high.
Powered by Williams’ career-best 17 boards, the Tigers pummeled Tulane in that department. Memphis crashed the glass, racking up a season-best 48 as a team while also limiting the Green Wave to just 28 rebounds.
Kendric Davis: record-breaker
Davis took two more steps toward becoming the most prolific player in AAC history.
With his third assist of Saturday’s game – to Damaria Franklin with 11:32 left in the first half – he broke the league record for career assists with his 579th, passing former Houston star Galen Robertson.
Davis also needed six made free throws to establish a new AAC record. He hit his sixth of the game with 3:42 left in the first half to pass former USF star David Collins.
Davis is also on pace to soon become the conference’s all-time leading scorer. He needs 46 to pass former Temple star Quinton Rose’s high mark of 1,860.
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis basketball: Tulane escapes with win in overtime thriller
