Memphis Pulls Away Late to Beat Lipscomb, 85-75 MEMPHIS, Tenn. - After surrendering a 14-point lead to Lipscomb, Memphis used a 12-5 spurt over the last 4:44 to pull out the victory, 85-75. Adonis Thomas scored a game-high 18 points and hauled in nine boards for the Tigers who improve to 6-4 on the season. Lipscomb drops to 6-7 with the loss.
Tigers On TV/Radio/Web Television: SportSouth/Comcast digital channel 52 (Pete Pranica, play-by-play; Sean Tuohy, color analyst)
Radio: WREC 600 AM (Dave Woloshin, play-by-play; Matt Dillon, color analyst; Forrest Goodman, studio host)
Web:None
SETTING THE SCENE
Memphis (6-3) hosts Lipscomb (5-5) Thursday, Dec. 20 at FedExForum. The game, to be televised on SportSouth, is scheduled for a 7 p.m. (CT) start.
The Tigers did not appear in either national poll this week.
The Tigers had their four-game win streak snapped Dec. 15 with an 87-78 setback to No. 6/6 Louisville.
Prior to the Dec. 15 loss, Memphis had won four straight with victories over Northern Iowa 52-47 Nov. 24, UT Martin 93-65 Nov. 29, Ohio 84-58 Dec. 5 and Austin Peay 83-65 Dec. 8.
Memphis returns four starters and 11 letterwinners from last year's squad.
Lipscomb is 3-2 in its last five contests. The Bisons defeated Tennessee Tech, UT Martin and Austin Peay and fell to Belmont and Kentucky.
Lipscomb is 2-3 in its road games this season, with victories at Gardner-Webb 66-62 and Austin Peay 87-84.
The Bisons return six letterwinners and three starters from last year's squad that went 13-18.
WHAT'S UP NEXT
The Tigers return to action Friday, Dec. 28 with a 7 p.m. (CT) contest versus Oral Roberts at FedExForum. Comcast Sports Southeast (CSS) is slated to televise the game.
The Bisons open Atlantic Sun Conference play when they return to action Dec. 31 at North Florida. Game time is 3:30 p.m. (CT).
WHAT THE BISONS DID A YEAR AGO
Lipscomb posted a 13-18 overall record and an 8-10 Atlantic Sun (A-Sun) Conference mark.
The Bisons finished seventh in the A-Sun Conference regular-season standings.
Lipscomb lost to Mercer 61-53 in the A-Sun Conference Tournament opening round.
SCOUTING THE BISONS
Lipscomb is 5-5 entering Thursday's contest.
The Bisons are 3-2 in their last five outings.
Lipscomb is 2-3 in its road games, defeating Gardner-Webb and Austin Peay and falling to Ole Miss, Belmont and Kentucky.
Martin Smith (13.3 ppg), Malcolm Smith (11.5 ppg), Stephen Hurt (10.6 ppg) and Deonte Alexander (10.3 ppg) are Lipscomb's four double-figure scorers.
Stephen Hurt leads the Bisons on the glass with a 7.9 rebounding average. Khion Sankey is the squad's second-leading rebounder at 7.3 rpg.
Sankey leads the Bisons with 35 assists (3.5 apg), and Alexander is the squad's top three-point threat (37.2 percent; 16 treys made).
Lipscomb is shooting 42.9 percent from the field, 32.1 percent from the arc and 63.6 percent from the charity stripe.
The Bisons are out-rebounding their foes by an average margin of +3.3 boards (39.5-36.2).
Lipscomb is turning the ball over 19.0 times a game.
COMMON FOES
Memphis and Lipscomb have played two common opponents this season, and both are 2-0 against those foes.
Memphis
Opponent
Lipscomb
93-65, W (H)
UT Martin
86-62, W (H)
83-65, W (H)
Austin Peay
87-84, W (A)
MEMPHIS VERSUS THE ATLANTIC SUN
The Tigers have an all-time 18-5 record versus Atlantic Sun (A-Sun) Conference foes.
Memphis has played East Tennessee State (4-3), Jacksonville (4-1), Lipscomb (6-1), Mercer (2-0), North Florida (1-0) and Stetson (1-0).
The last time the Tigers played an Atlantic Sun opponent was earlier this year when they hosted North Florida in their Nov. 12 season/home opener. Memphis defeated the Ospreys 81-66 at FedExForum.
HEY, WE KNOW THAT NAME!
Some Tigers basketball fans may recognize the last name of Lipscomb's head coach.
The Bisons' head coach is Scott Sanderson, and he is the son of former Alabama (1980-92) and Arkansas-Little Rock (1994-99) head coach Wimp Sanderson.
Although Wimp Sanderson coached in the South for 17 seasons, Memphis never played against one of his teams. However, Wimp Sanderson and the Tigers nearly met in the 1982 NCAA Tournament.
Memphis and Alabama both advanced to the 1982 NCAA Sweet Sixteen in Raleigh, N.C., and if both had won, they would have met in the East Region final for the chance to go to the Final Four.
The Tigers and Crimson Tide, though, dropped close decisions to Villanova (70-66) and North Carolina (74-69), respectively, in the East Region semifinals.
FIRST TIME SINCE ...
The Tigers and Bisons are meeting for a third-straight season for the first time in 78 years.
The two in-state schools played in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns prior to Thursday's encounter.
The last time Memphis and Lipscomb played in three-consecutive seasons was back in the 1930s.
The two institutions met in the 1932-33, 1933-34 and 1934-35 seasons.
MEMPHIS REPRESENTIN'
The city of Memphis will be well represented in Thursday's contest between the Tigers and Bisons.
The squads combine to have eight players from Memphis area on the two rosters.
Lipscomb has one player -- Charles Smith (Southwind High School) -- that calls Memphis home.
The Memphis and Lipscomb rosters have several players from the state of Tennessee.
Of the 29 players listed on both rosters, 16 call the state of Tennessee home.
Memphis and Lipscomb each have eight in-state players on its respective roster.
MEMPHIS VERSUS NASHVILLE
For a third-straight year, Memphis faces an opponent from the city of Nashville in Lipscomb Dec. 20.
Last year, the Tigers posted wins over Nashville-based Belmont 97-81 and Lipscomb 85-75.
Memphis has a 21-9 record (.700 winning percentage) versus current NCAA Division 1 programs in the city of Nashville.
Under head coach Josh Pastner, Memphis is a perfect 4-0 against city of Nashville/NCAA Division I institutions.
The following breaks down the Tigers' record versus city of Nashville/NCAA Division 1 foes:
Nashville Team
Series Record
Belmont
2-0
Lipscomb
6-1
Tennessee State
8-0
Vanderbilt
5-8
TIGERS SUCCESS AT FEDEXFORUM
The Tigers have a 150-18 overall record (.893 winning percentage) at FedExForum since moving to the arena for the 2004-05 campaign.
Since the 2005 Conference USA Tournament, Memphis has won 140 of its last 152 home games (.921 winning percentage).
Against non-conference foes (regular-season only) at FedExForum since 2004-05, the Tigers have a 68-11 mark (.861 winning percentage).
Under head coach Josh Pastner, Memphis is 32-5 (.865 winning percentage) against non-league foes at FedExForum (includes 5-1 record so far this year).
TIGERS `BOUNDING THE BOARDS IN 2012-13
A lot of talk in head coach Josh Pastner's first three seasons centered about rebounding and the Tigers' frustration in that area.
Well, it looks as if that's been corrected early on in the 2012-13 campaign.
Memphis is out-rebounding its opponents by an average margin of +7.1 boards per game (37.1-30.0), which ranks third in Conference USA.
The Tigers have won the board battle in seven of their nine contests this season, including games with Minnesota, Ohio and Louisville.
The following shows how the Tigers have done on the glass in Pastner's tenure (first nine games of each season only):
Rebounding Margin - First Nine Games
Year
Reb. Margin
Top Opponents
2012-13
+7.1
Bahamas, UofL
2011-12
-2.5
Maui, UofL
2010-11
-0.9
Miami, LSU, KU
2009-10
-0.1
KU, UMass
THE BAHAMAS AND THE AFTER
Tiger Nation may want to refer to "it" as T.B. (through Bahamas) and A.B. (After Bahamas).
That's the way head coach Josh Pastner and his squad are looking at it.
Despite the 1-2 record in the Battle 4 Atlantis in The Bahamas, Pastner and his team are taking what they learned from that tournament and using those lessons to get better.
The numbers below prove it (T.B. is through Bahamas; A.B. is after Bahamas):
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - After surrendering a 14-point lead to Lipscomb, Memphis used a 12-5 spurt over the last 4:44 to pull out the victory, 85-75. Adonis Thomas scored a game-high 18 points and hauled in nine boards for the Tigers who improve to 6-4 on the season. Lipscomb drops to 6-7 with the loss.
