Memphis basketball aces test at Missouri. Here are 5 takeaways from the Tigers' win
COLUMBIA, Mo. — If Memphis basketball’s Friday game against Missouri at a raucous, sold-out Mizzou Arena was a test, the team aced it.
The Tigers (2-0) trailed by 14 points in the first half but came storming back to win 70-55. Using a 22-5 run to open the second half, Memphis took all of the air out of the 15,000-plus rowdy Missouri fans and held on to crash their would-be party.
A significant portion of the home team's faithful began flocking toward the exits with more than five minutes left in the game. One of the biggest cheers of the second half came when a member of the Missouri student section ("The Antlers") retrieved a T-shirt that was inadvertently draped over a shot clock.
The experienced, transfer-heavy Memphis team never blinked. It kept its composure, settled down, made shots and forced Missouri into misses in the second half. Oh, and Jahvon Quinerly took over. The Alabama transfer led the way with 18 points, 14 of which came after halftime.
"He did what we needed him to do," said Memphis assistant Rick Stansbury, who is serving as acting head coach while Penny Hardaway serves a three-game suspension for violating NCAA recruiting rules in 2021. "That's what you want a lead point guard to do. Take control of that game."
Jaykwon Walton contributed 13 points, Jordan Brown put up 12 and David Jones had 10.
Stansbury won for the third time at Missouri. He also won there as head coach at Mississippi State and Western Kentucky.
Here are five observations from Friday's game:
Jahvon Quinerly blasts off
Quinerly, Memphis' point guard, noticeably struggled against Jackson State in the season opener, with eight points in 24 minutes, plus four assists and three turnovers.
Hardaway said in recent weeks that Quinerly missed considerable practice time while nursing a hyperextended knee.
But Quinerly showed up Friday. He was efficient and in command, especially in the second half, giving Memphis the lift it needed.
Taking care of the ball, taking control of the boards
Memphis went into the matchup with a decided size advantage, especially because 7-foot-5 Missouri big man Connor Vanover (a one-time Memphis signee) could not play because of an NCAA ruling.
Memphis seized on it, dominating the battle of the boards 47-33 in a positive development after it was out-rebounded by Jackson State. That rebounding translated into 12 second-chance points. Jones led the team with 10 boards, while Quinerly's eight rebounds are a new career-high.
Another area of concern in the win over Jackson State was Memphis’ 16 turnovers. How would it handle the pressure of playing a quality opponent (one that received votes in the preseason Associated Press Top 25) in a hostile environment?
Rather well, it turns out, wrapping things up with 11 giveaways.
Memphis basketball offense goes MIA
It all started so well. The visiting Tigers were clicking early, making five of their first seven field goal attempts.
The rest of the first half was something else entirely. Memphis got up 24 more shots before halftime but made only six.
Coming off a game in which the team’s long-range production was a bright spot (11 3-pointers versus Jackson State), the deep ball was especially problematic against Missouri. Memphis put up six triples in a 4:57 span and missed each one. The frigid shooting was contagious as Quinerly, Jones, Jonathan Pierre, Caleb Mills and Jayden Hardaway each misfired during that stretch.
The early separation
Meanwhile, Missouri was making it look easy on offense.
Coach Dennis Gates’ team capitalized, rattling off a 16-2 run in a 5-minute, 38-second span in the first half. With Memphis leading 14-10, Sean East II and Noah Carter came alive. They combined to score 12 of Missouri’s 16 points during the dominant run.
East’s good work in the first half wasn’t limited to Missouri’s big run, either.
The senior guard, who dropped 21 on Arkansas-Pine Bluff in the season opener, poured in a cool 14 points in the final 11 minutes of the first half.
When the tide turned for Memphis
The Tigers trailed 29-15 with 5:11 left in the first half.
Then Brown made back-to-back buckets, jump-starting Memphis offense, which closed the half on an 11-4 run to keep things from getting out of hand.
"You get down (14) in the first half and you peck back to seven, it's really a new ballgame. And we come out of the locker room and it's our ball," Stansbury said. "We made some shots when we had to."
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Next up
Memphis faces Alabama State on Nov. 17 at FedExForum.
The game is set for 7 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+.
Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @munzly.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Five takeaways from Memphis basketball's performance at Missouri
