Memphis’ first loss of the season came with a familiar problem attached: too many clean looks from 3-point range.
No. 19 Vanderbilt buried 15 triples and rolled past the Tigers 105-81 on Nov. 10 at Memorial Gymnasium, turning a competitive first half into a runaway finish. Memphis shot 53.6% in the opening 20 minutes and trailed only 47-42 at the break, but the Commodores (3-0) kept pouring it on after halftime and never let the Tigers (2-1) settle in.
The rebounding margin told plenty of the story, too. Vanderbilt finished with a 44-29 edge on the glass and paired that with a barrage from deep, hitting 15 of 32 attempts. For Memphis, the issue wasn’t hard to identify.
“Straight-line drives. Open 3s.
Just stuff we talk about during the scout,” Luke Almodovar said after finishing with a team-high 21 points. “It’s just not good enough.
We have to have enough heart to stay in front of our man and not give up straight-line drives.”
Penny Hardaway has now watched his team get hit by back-to-back 3-point storms. VCU knocked down 13 in Memphis’ previous game, and Vanderbilt followed with 15. In both cases, the Tigers were chasing open shots for long stretches.
“Obviously, in the VCU game in the first half, their higher 3-point percentage shooters made the shots, so we were very disappointed,” Hardaway said. “Tonight, the lower percentage guys made the shots. But, you know, they’re still college athletes.”
The fix, at least in Hardaway’s view, starts with effort and attention to detail.
“To me, we want to get out there .. and contest everything,” said Hardaway. “We’re just not doing it yet. We just have to get better with that.”
The first half against Vanderbilt looked a lot like the opening stretch against VCU. The Commodores hit eight of their first 13 3s, good for 61.5%, while Memphis was again fighting from behind on the boards and in the passing game.
Vanderbilt had 11 assists before halftime; Memphis had three. The Tigers also trailed 47-42 at the break, matching the kind of halftime hole they had already seen against VCU, when they were down 48-44.
Then came another second-half punch. Just as VCU did four days earlier, Vanderbilt opened the half with a 6-0 run and quickly stretched the game out of reach.
“Decent first half, to only go in down five, (even with) giving up a 3 right before the end of the half,” Hardaway said. “And then just get blasted in the second half.
Very disappointing. But we’ll get this game behind us and move on.”
Memphis also had to navigate two injury scares. Jayden Reid left just 96 seconds into the game after rolling his left ankle, and the Tigers had to adjust on the fly while he sat for the next 3:12.
Vanderbilt used that stretch to flip a 4-0 Memphis lead into a 10-8 advantage. Reid eventually returned and played 30 minutes, scoring 11 points, but Almodovar said the injury changed things.
“I mean it’s always going to alter (the game plan), because he scores the ball so well and he’s such a catalyst for our offense,” Almodovar said.
Later, Almodovar had his own frightening moment. After throwing down a dunk with 11:18 left, he let go of the rim and crashed to the floor, landing on his head and knocking himself unconscious for about 45 seconds, he said.
He walked off under his own power, returned to the bench, and did not re-enter. Afterward, he said he is “all right.”
“He’s a super athlete. Tough guy,” Hardaway said. “(I was) just hoping that he didn’t land hard enough on his neck that it was going to put him in any kind of bad situation.”
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