The Shockers jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Everything was going right early, it looked like the Shockers were on their way to pick up a crucial win for their NCAA Tournament’s hopes.

Then everything fell apart.

In the final 16 minutes of the half, Memphis outscored WSU 29-17, but there was still hope. The Tigers only held a five-point lead into the locker room, but in the second half, the offense continued to falter.

Memphis would ride Precious Achuiwa’s 17th double-double of the season to victory, 68-60 victory, keeping the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament hopes alive. WSU’s hopes fall further out of the picture.

The Shockers are now on the outside looking in. WSU is now just 2-6 in Quadrant-I games and will need to secure a couple of victories in the conference tournament next weekend. Every game is a must-win for WSU moving forward.

The Shockers struggled heavily throughout the night, shooting 34.4% from the field and 26.1% from downtown. One area that seemed apparent to Gregg Marshall was the lack of movement throughout the offense.

“We started out trying to run motion but in the motion, the word motion means ball movement, player movement, and we were to stack,” Marshall said in his radio show after the game. “We were just trying to stand there and throw it Jaime and he struggled with turnovers.”

“We could not get a break tonight.”

Memphis’ scoring was much more balanced throughout the game, which was a key part of their offensive success. Tyler Harris was able to score a game-high 19 points off the bench. The Tigers’ bench outscored WSU 38-6.

The Shockers were able to have four different players score in double figures, but there was a big drop-off after that. Outside of those four, the next leading scorer had just two points.

Another area that was a key part of the loss was the Shockers’ struggles at the free-throw line. Despite coming into the game with a free-throw percentage of 69.2% – which ranks No. 292 nationally – WSU was only able to convert 12 of their 22 attempts at the charity stripe.

Despite the struggles in Memphis, WSU NCAA’s tournament hopes remain alive. They will have a big chance to improve their resume with a Quadrant-2 game against Tulsa on Sunday.

Marshall is hopeful that there will be no carryover effect for the game on Sunday.

“You can’t let this game beat you twice. We need to play better and well, to beat Tulsa. Tulsa is playing very, very well,” he said. “In this league, anyone can beat anyone on a given night.”

The game against Tulsa will also be a big game in determining if they are able to get the first-round bye in Fort Worth. Currently, Memphis holds the tiebreaker against the Shockers, but will have to face off against Houston in their season finale.

The senior night contest against the Golden Hurricane on Sunday has a scheduled tip-off time of 3 p.m.