After nearly 20 years of not allowing an opponent to score 100 points, No. 13 ranked Memphis outscored Wichita State men’s basketball 112-86.
“I was just as shocked as everybody else,” Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway said. “I expected this to be like a dogfight and didn’t expect for it to be a blowout.”
Wichita State began the game strong, winning the jump ball and making the game’s first bucket from junior Quincy Ballard.
Memphis responded with a jump shot from Jaykwon Walton, a former Shocker. In his return to the Roundhouse, Walton led the Tigers with 23 points and scored a career-best of six 3-pointers.
Redshirt junior Colby Rodgers said it was nice to see a former teammate back on the court.
“I didn’t want to see him do good, but … it was fun seeing him back here,” Rodgers said.
The Shockers held a one-point lead by the first media timeout, 22-21, but the Memphis Tigers pushed back to take the lead, 49-43.
With seconds left in the first half, graduate student Dalen Ridgnal made a key 3-pointer to send the Shockers 49-46 into halftime.
By the start of the second half, the Shockers were still on a high from the first with back-to-back 3-pointers from Rogers.
The Tigers countered by making the next five points, 57-52. The Shockers failed to respond, causing Memphis to go on a subsequent 25-8 run.
“When those shots started falling early, we couldn’t get caught up in a shootout, and we did,” Paul Mills, Wichita State head coach, said. “We’re not going to win those kinds of games.”
Memphis hit 100 points with 6:02 remaining. The Tigers would break its own program record with the 19 3-pointers made.
The Shockers shot a season-high 55% from the field, but it would not compare to the Tigers’ 65%, going 19-30 from beyond the arc.
Rogers led the Shockers with 20 points. Redshirt junior Beverly Harlond would follow suit and make 15 points, and Ridgnal scored 15 buckets.
Looking forward, the team hopes to continue to grow from tough losses.
“We just got to focus in on what we have to do as a team and keep focus on getting better as individuals, as players,” Rogers said.
This was the fifth straight loss (0-3 in conference) for men’s basketball, who will seek to snap its losing streak as they travel to Boca Raton, Florida, to face off against Florida Atlantic on Jan. 18. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.
