'Keep a clear mind and keep playing': Memphis basketball edges UCF with wild finish

Memphis basketball won Thursday, but it paid a steep price.

As the Tigers (20-6, 10-3 AAC) paid UCF back for a disappointing double-overtime loss in Orlando last month, picking up a 64-63 victory at FedExForum, they also lost star point guard Kendric Davis in the process.

First, the win: Memphis attempted one field goal over the final 5 minutes, 25 seconds and it turned out to be the game-winner. After squandering a 15-point second-half lead, Damaria Franklin saved the Tigers with a steal and a layup with 7 seconds left to give Memphis the lead. Franklin forced UCF's Darius Johnson to give up the handle and redshirt freshman Johnathan Lawson punched the ball ahead to a streaking Franklin. The UIC transfer laid the ball up with his left hand over UCF's projected first-round NBA Draft pick Taylor Hendricks.

The Knights (15-10, 6-7) got off one final shot, a layup attempt by Darius Johnson, but it missed.

"Making the layup. That was the only thing going through my head (at that point)," Franklin said. "It was really just more of trying to get into (Hendricks') body, using the rim to shut him off a little bit. It's always just keep a clear mind and keep playing. You never know what's going to happen. We got a hand on the ball and it saved us."

Memphis coach Penny Hardaway credited the defense.

"I saw the momentum shifting to them and it seemed like we were trying to hold on instead of continuing to play," said Hardaway. "That's easy for me to say, because we've never had to do that without KD this year. I'm watching this and I'm just trying to figure out how to continue to keep these guys uplifted during the timeouts. We got a little stagnant. To have 24 turnovers and still win, it just shows you what defense can do."

Now, the injury: Fourteen-plus minutes after Davis established himself as the AAC’s all-time leading scorer, the former SMU star and reigning conference player of the year rolled his right ankle and did not return to the game. Davis dealt with nagging ankle problems for much of the first month of the season but had been relatively healthy since then.

Davis hit the deck hard near the Tigers’ basket on an Elijah McCadden 3-pointer and immediately grabbed his right ankle. Writhing in pain, he motioned toward the Memphis bench, indicating he was done for the game. McCadden led the way with 16 points.

Memphis returns to the floor Sunday (2 p.m., ESPN) at No. 2 Houston.

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How UCF came back

The best 3-point shooting team in the AAC benefited from being volume shooters. While the Knights attempted a whopping 29 shots, they made nine – enough to make it worth it.

Hendricks led the way with 17 points and finished with three 3-pointers.

UCF also did a lot of damage off the Tigers’ turnover issues. Memphis gave the ball up 24 times – a season-high and seven more than its past two games combined – and the Knights made the most of it, scoring 32 points as a result. The Tigers gave the ball away 16 times in the second half and nine times over the final 4:42.

As much good as UCF did, there was plenty of self-inflicted wounds on Memphis' part aside from the turnovers. The Tigers took just 11 shots over the final 12:25 and made just three of them.

King Kendric

Davis made sure to get the record-breaker out of the way early.

Working in isolation on UCF’s Tyem Freeman, Davis broke to his right with a crossover move, then created the separation he needed to hit the fallaway runner off the glass and put the Tigers up 2-0 with 18:41 left in the first half.

Davis finished with 10 points (on 5-of-9 shooting), one rebound and one steal before leaving with the ankle injury.

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

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis basketball: Tigers beat UCF with wild finish