PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Week five of American Athletic Conference men's basketball action tipped on Wednesday night with two games on ESPN networks. Tulsa put forth its best offensive output of the year to get past Memphis, 95-79. Wichita State got a game-winning reverse layup from Samajae Haynes-Jones with just a second left as the Shockers won against SMU, 85-83.
Wednesday, January 30
Tulsa 95, Memphis 79
DaQuan Jeffries scored a career-high 25 points to go along with eight rebounds, while Curran Scott added a season-high 20 points to lead Tulsa to a 95-79 win over Memphis on Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
Jeffries went 8-of-12 from the field and 3-of-5 behind the arc as the Golden Hurricane (13-9, 3-6) snapped a three-game skid. Scott was 5-of-8 from the floor and hit eight of his nine free throws. The duo was joined in double figures by Sterling Taplin (14 points), Jeriah Horne (13 points) and Martins Igbanu (10 points).
In all, the Hurricane set season highs for points (95), field goals (30), assists (24) and field goal percentage (.545). Elijah Joiner contributed a career-high eight assists, while Taplin added four helpers.
Meanwhile, Tyler Harris led the Tigers (13-8, 5-3) with 18 points off the bench, all of which came in the second half. Kyvon Davenport had a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds and Memphis heated up to 40.6-percent shooting for the contest after connecting at 50-percent (18-of-36) in the second half.
The Tigers got the opening basket, but it was all Tulsa after that and the Hurricane took the lead for good with an 11-0 run. TU pounded the ball inside to the tune of 22 points in the paint during the opening period and those close shots helped the home squad shoot 51.5-percent.
Midway through the half, Tulsa rattled off a 10-2 spurt to extend its cushion to double-digits. Minutes later, the squad made four straight shots, including a triple from Lawson Korita and a pair of jumpers by Curran Scott, to push the lead to 44-22.
Memphis would outscore TU 9-4 over the final three minutes of the half, but the Hurricane lead was a comfortable 48-31 at halftime. The 48 points for Tulsa was its best output in a first half this season.
Jeffries would throw down the first of his two monster and-1 dunks early in the second half to help maintain the 20-point cushion. However, the Tigers went on an 11-1 run that sliced the Tulsa lead to 64-53 with 10:13 left.
Scott and Horne helped the Hurricane answer as the pair hit 3-pointers and Taplin drove in for a fast-break layup to hold the double-digit cushion despite four straight triples by Harris.
With the lead down to 74-66 with 6:34 remaining, Jeffries took a long pass and again jammed it home despite being fouled to bring the home crowd to its feet.
Tulsa continued to answer any Memphis charge and never let the advantage slip below nine points the rest of the way. Scott hit his second trey of the night with 2:02 to play and then made all six of his free throws in the final 70 seconds to secure the 95-79 final.
Wichita State 85, SMU 83
Senior Samajae Haynes-Jones drove to the basket and converted a reverse layup with less than a second remaining in regulation to lift Wichita State to an 85-83 victory over SMU inside Charles Koch Arena.
Haynes-Jones and Erik Stevenson netted 17 points apiece, leading five Shockers (9-11, 2-6) in double figures, while Markis McDuffie had 15, Jaime Echenique poured in 13, and Asbjørn Midtgaard netted a career-high 10 points. Echenique and Stevenson paced WSU on the boards, pulling down six rebounds each, while Jamarius Burton dished out a career-high seven assists.
The Shockers trailed the Mustangs (12-8, 4-4), 23-20, after a Midtgaard dunk with just under nine minutes to go in the first-half when SMU caught fire from three-point range, building its advantage to 31-20 over the next minute after Isiaha Mike converted back-to-back shots from downtown. The consecutive long-range shots were part of an 8-0 run for the visitors.
The Shockers went into halftime down seven, 45-38, after Burton powered to the basket and made a layup with 23 seconds to go in the opening stanza.
Midtgaard led Wichita State in the inaugural 20 minutes, netting a career-best eight points on a flawless 4-of-4 shooting performance, including three dunks, while Burton and Haynes-Jones each had seven, and McDuffie netted six.
Both teams shot 50 percent from the floor and snagged 17 rebounds in the opening frame, but SMU made eight three-pointers, compared to just five for WSU.
Wichita State methodically began to chip away at the Mustang lead to begin the second-half, and tied the game, 49-49, after back-to-back treys from Rod Brown and Stevenson with 15:44 to go.
The Shockers took their first lead since early in the game after Stevenson converted a pair of free-throws, making it 54-53 with 13:46 remaining in the period.
The two teams traded leads over the next four-plus minutes until Haynes-Jones drilled a shot from downtown, putting Wichita State in front, 62-60, with just over nine minutes to go.
WSU held onto the advantage until an Ethan Chargois layup tied the contest, 69-69, at the 4:36 mark.
The Shockers regained a two-point edge four times over the next 2:33 until a Mike three-pointer with 1:22 to go put the Mustangs in front, 81-80.
Echenique made three of his next four free-throws to put WSU in front, 83-81, but SMU's Jimmy Whitt, Jr., converted a layup with 19 seconds remaining in regulation, knotting the game, 83-all.
The Mustangs had one final opportunity to either win or tie the contest after Haynes-Jones layup, but a last-second full-court pass was tipped, securing the victory for the Shockers.
Mike led five SMU players in double figures with 25 points, while Chargois posted a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Both teams shot the ball fairly even for the game, with Wichita State hitting 48 percent and SMU converting 49 percent from the floor.
After making eight threes in the opening half, SMU cooled-off drastically from beyond-the-arc, hitting just 33 percent from long range in the second half to finish the game at 44 percent.
The Shockers went 48 percent from three-point land in the contest, making 10 treys, and made 13-of-19 free-throws for 68 percent.
Each team snagged 34 rebounds, but the Shockers outscored the Mustangs in the paint, 32-28, and 17-10 in second-chance opportunities. Wichita State also turned the ball over just five times in the game - a season-low.
UPCOMING GAMES