Ashton Hardaway came off the bench to score 17 points to lead Memphis to a 71-67 win over Michigan in a first round game in the Battle 4 Atlantis on Wednesday in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
David Jones scored 11 points, and Caleb Mills added 10 for Memphis (4-0), which will oppose No. 20 Arkansas in a semifinal game on Thursday.
Olivier Nkamhoua had 18 points and seven rebounds, Nimari Burnett had 16 points and nine rebounds and Dug McDaniel had 13 points and seven rebounds for Michigan (3-2). The Wolverines will meet Stanford in a consolation-bracket game on Thursday.
The Wolverines held a 50-28 rebounding advantage but committed 18 turnovers.
Michigan trailed by 12 points in the second half, but the Wolverines rallied to cut their deficit to 59-58 with 4:12 remaining in the game after two free throws by Tray Jackson.
But a 3-pointer by Jaykwon Walton of Memphis became the start of an 8-0 run that gave the Tigers a 67-58 lead with 1:07 left.
Michigan did climb back within five at 67-62 with 36.8 seconds remaining after a basket by McDaniel, but Memphis went back up 69-62 with 35.2 seconds to go after two free throws by Jones.
Michigan didn’t go away, cutting the Memphis lead to two at 69-67 with 9.1 seconds remaining after a 3-pointer by Jackson.
But Jones was fouled on the ensuing inbounds and made two free throws with 4.3 seconds remaining to seal the game for Memphis.
Memphis held a 37-25 lead at halftime, but Michigan slowly started to chip away at its deficit in the second half.
Trailing 48-36 with 13:17 remaining, Michigan went on a 12-3 run over the next 4:56 to cut the Memphis lead to 51-48.
The first half was close until Memphis went on a run in the waning minutes before halftime.
Holding a 24-21 lead with 4:59 to go in the first half, Memphis went on a 13-2 run to take a 37-23 lead with 1:53 remaining until halftime.
–Field Level Media
