How it happened: Tulsa destroys #20 Memphis by 40 points

Tulsa gave mighty 20th-ranked Memphis as big of an old-fashioned whipping as anyone could ever imagine.

As statement wins go, this one is huge. Make no mistake. Tulsa is back on the national basketball map.

Jeriah Horne led Tulsa with 21 points and eight rebounds in a full-throttle domination over mighty Memphis in a 80-40 victory Wednesday night in front of 4,668 delirious, raucous fans at the Reynolds Center.

Tulsa (13-6, 5-1 AAC) came out from the start and completely bewildered the young, freshmen-led Tigers that had the top-ranked recruiting class in the nation. Tulsa's match-up zone gave Memphis fits.

And perhaps most importantly, Tulsa completely dismantled the Memphis full-court press. Every time Tulsa beat the press and got a bucket, the Golden Hurricane went on a feeding frenzy, with the fans getting louder and louder.

Horne's 11 points in the first half were a big factor in Tulsa getting out to a relentless 40-17 halftime lead where Tulsa just kept aggressively attacking the Memphis defense with outstanding passing and shooting. A lot of contested layups combined with outstanding shooting.

The whopping 40-point victory, the largest margin by an unranked team against a ranked team in 27 years, did not have Horne surprised since he expects greatness from this Tulsa team.

"We expect that out of our team every night in the way we prepare," Horne said of his team's performance. "We're coming together. Our chemistry is really good and feels good."

Tulsa's breaking of the Memphis full-court press ultimately broke down and destroyed the Tigers.

"We just continued to try and stay poised," Horne said of how Tulsa handled the Memphis pressure. "Moving the ball and hitting the open man. I feel like coach prepared us really well for that in this game."

Memphis (14-4, 3-2) had very little success in any aspect of the game. But their inability to rattle Tulsa with its pressure defense wound up rattling the Tigers.

"We had good spacing," said Tulsa head coach Frank Haith. "Sometimes when you play a team that's pressing you, and you don't have good spacing and you try and beat it off the dribble, it can get you in trouble against a team like Memphis. With their quickness and speed, they can guard the ball. But you've got to be able to handle that with good spacing and good teamwork to share the basketball.

"The reason they're a really good team is because they are aggressive, they do a great job of reading passes and getting in passing lanes. And they rebound the ball. I thought we were really prepared well. We had great execution. You've got to make some shots, too."

The Golden Hurricane made shots, but wasn't outrageously hot, shooting 50 percent from the field, 33 percent on three's (eight of 24), and 72 percent from the line (18 of 25). Good numbers, but not out of your mind numbers.

But Tulsa's holding the Tigers to an incredible two-of-21 on three pointers (9.5 percent), and 28.6 percent from the field (16 of 56), was almost unbelievable. TU also out-rebounded the tall, athletic Tigers 37-35, had eight steals to six for Memphis, and forced 20 turnovers, compared with only 11 for Tulsa.

It was Tulsa's match-up zone for which the young Tigers had no answer.

"We knew that they were going to play match-up zone. When it didn't go well in what we were trying to do, guys just didn't come back and get tougher on the defensive end," said Memphis coach Penny Hardaway. "That's what you have to do until you figure it out. We never figured it out offensively, and we caved in on the defensive end. It was new for the freshmen playing against a match-up zone."

Precious Achiuwa, the 6-foot-9 freshman phenom who leads Memphis in scoring at 15.4 points per game, scored the first eight points for Memphis when the Tigers were only down 14-8. But Achiuwa was muzzled the rest of the game, finishing with 10 points to lead the Tigers.

With Achiuwa in check, as well as fellow freshmen Lester Quinones, Malcolm Dandridge, D.J. Jeffries, Boogie Ellis and Damion Baugh, Tulsa was able to build a 26-10 lead midway through the first half. After halftime, with everyone expecting a Memphis run, it didn't happen.

The closest Memphis came to Tulsa in the second half was within 21 points early in the period. The lead was up top 30 just over seven minutes into the half, and the party was definitely over for the Tigers.

"It was pretty embarrassing," Hardaway said of his Memphis team that had overcome sizable deficits this season. "I saw energy way down. I'm not sure why. I knew from last year how they played and how they were going to play. They didn't need much motivation for us coming in here. We're a young team and we did not meet the challenge, and they did. Kudos to them."

Hardaway was referring to Tulsa's 95-79 blasting of Memphis last season in Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane has won the last five home games against Memphis.

"We knew they were going to be ready for the pressure because of last year," Hardaway said.

Besides Horne (three-of-eight on three-pointers), four other Tulsa players finished in double-digits in scoring. Brandon Rachal and Martins Igbanu each had 11 points, and Darien Jackson and Elijah Joiner scored 10 points apiece. Jackson continued his recent emergence as a shooter, hitting both three-pointers to go along with two dunks for a perfect four-of-four from the floor.

But perhaps overlooked was the stellar performance of freshman point guard Isaiah Hill, who clearly outplayed all of the heralded Memphis freshman.

Hill, sometimes playing alongside fellow point guard Joiner, was critical in handling the Memphis pressure. Hill was poised from the start, leading Tulsa with five assists and zero turnovers in 22 minutes. He scored five of his seven points in the critical first half.

"We played great on both ends of the court," Haith said. "We caught Memphis on not one of their best nights. Proud of our kids on how they fought and competed. There's not an area of the game that I think they didn't do well, in terms of rebounding, in terms of passing and sharing the ball, we did a great job.

"On defense, I thought we were outstanding. Hands in passing lanes, jumping to the ball. I'm really proud of our effort."

Tulsa not only registered its biggest win over a ranked team in school history, but it shattered its previous margin of victory of 26 points when #15 TU defeated #10 LSU 84-58 on Dec. 22 of 1952 at the Fairgrounds Pavilion. The next best was a more recent 80-57 win on Jan. 16 of 1997 over #12 New Mexico at ORU's Mabee Center.

The Golden Hurricane has faced ranked Memphis teams 14 times, with only one previous victory, a 90-85 win over the No. 19 Tigers on Jan. 16, 1971 at the Fairgrounds Pavilion.

With Tulsa now in sole possession of first place in the AAC, Haith is excited but guarded about not getting too high over one victory.

"We've just got to keep growing," Haith said. "We lost by 30 earlier in the year. It's just one game. I say this all the time every year when he have a good win. A proud peacock today is a feather duster tomorrow. We understand the game is unforgiving sometimes so you've got to be ready to play. It's a long season. We're just off to a really good start."

Tulsa next plays at UConn (10-7, 1-3) on Sunday at 11 am.