David Jones leads Memphis basketball to win over Alabama State. Five things we learned

Memphis basketball overwhelmed Alabama State on Friday — first with numbers, then with points.

Acting head coach Rick Stansbury shuffled in 11 players in the first half. In the second, the still-fresh Tigers (3-0) created some separation and went on to win 92-75 at FedExForum. The team scored 61 of its points over the final 24:52 of the game.

David Jones led the way with 22 points, contributing four of the Tigers' 11 3-pointers. Three others scored in double figures, including Jahvon Quinerly (16 points), and he had eight rebounds for the second game in a row.

CJ Hines led Alabama State with 19 points and five rebounds. Former Houston star TJ Madlock (son of current Hornets coach and former Memphis assistant coach Tony Madlock) put up 16.

The Tigers return to action against Michigan (3-1) on Wednesday (4 p.m., ESPN2) at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas.

Here are five takeaways and observations from Friday's game:

David Jones guts it out

Jones' big game came as somewhat of a surprise.

The St. John's transfer tweaked an ankle in practice this week, and the coaching staff wasn't sure if he would be well enough to play. But he gutted it out, playing the best game of his young Memphis career with his second straight double-double.

"Win the game," Jones said when asked why he wanted to play hurt. "That was about it. Just trying to help my teammates win the game."

It was the most points Jones — who transferred from DePaul to St. John's for the 2022-23 season — has scored since putting up 24 for DePaul on Feb. 24, 2022, against St. John's.

Runs upon runs

A team that can score quickly at different times: Stansbury calls it “spurtability,” and the Tigers had it Friday.

Memphis rattled off four runs of 6-0 or better in the first half. Jordan Brown and Jones combined to stake the Tigers to a 6-0 lead to start the game. An 8-0 run (highlighted by four Jayden Hardaway points) put them up 21-10.

When Alabama State cut the lead to 31-30, a quick 6-0 run gave Memphis some breathing room. It closed the half on a 6-0 run, which consisted of back-to-back 3-pointers from Jones.

"When you have some guys, and I'll use this word again, with 'spurtability' − did y'all check and see if that's a real word?" said Stansbury. "You can't teach that, now. And that's a good thing. It doesn't take but a two-minute span somewhere. Someone to go off and hit two or three 3s in a row to separate a ball game. Hard to teach guys to be able to do that right there.

"And we've got multiple guys that can do it."

So many extra possessions

Memphis went into halftime leading 47-36.

But it could have been an astronomically bigger lead if not for all of the extra possessions Alabama State earned and were given. The Hornets dominated the offensive glass in the first half, racking up 14 rebounds off their own misses. On top of that, Memphis committed 10 turnovers to Alabama State's three through the first 20 minutes.

"I'm going to be honest, I wasn't really happy with the way we played tonight," said Quinerly. "Letting a team come in here and get that many offensive rebounds (25) on us, that's just, honestly it's unacceptable. But I'm glad that it happened now, rather than in the Bahamas.

"We've got stuff to work on, for sure."

Those glaring deficiencies afforded the Hornets 21 extra possessions in the half. But they scored just eight second-chance points and four points off turnovers.

Welcome back, Caleb Mills and Jordan Brown

Penny Hardaway, serving the last of his three-game suspension, can't be on the bench to coach, but he can set the starting lineups, and he went against the grain in the first two regular-season games, holding Caleb Mills and Jordan Brown out, even though both started the Tigers' exhibition games.

But earlier this week, Hardaway said he saw enough out of the seniors in last week’s win over Missouri to start them.

“Sometimes you’ve gotta shock guys back into reality,” Hardaway said. “And that worked for (Brown) and Caleb. They both now know that they can’t rest or feel entitled. I mean, it wasn’t anything personal. I just thought that energy would come better from Malcolm (Dandridge) and Nicholas (Jourdain). And then Caleb and Jordan answered the bell.”

Mills finished with 10 points and Brown had eight and six rebounds.

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Better at the line

Memphis struggled at the free-throw line in its first two games, shooting 65.2% or worse in each outing.

The Tigers turned it around against Alabama State, connecting on 73.9%.

Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: David Jones' 22 points lead Memphis basketball over Alabama State