Kendric Davis poured in 23 points and nearly had a double-double with nine assists as Memphis held on for an 83-79 victory over visiting Texas A&M Saturday night.
DeAndre Williams scored 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting, hitting two clutch free throws with 2:48 to play that put Memphis ahead 72-69.
Jonathan Lawson scored 10, connecting three times from beyond the arc as the Tigers (9-3) won their fourth game of the season against an SEC opponent. Fourteen of Davis’s points came from the free-throw line.
The Aggies (6-4) lost despite a 25-point effort from Wade Taylor IV. Julius Marble finished with 16 points and Manny Obaseki chipped in 14. Henry Coleman III scored 12.
Down by as many as 13 in the first half, A&M trailed 45-36 at the half but closed the gap to 63-61 with 9:26 left after Tyrece Radford’s step-back 3-pointer from the top of the arc.
Radford’s two free throws at the 5:18 mark made it 67-65.
Trailing 68-67 with 3:20 to go, Marble scored on a layup to give the Aggies a 69-68 lead.
Memphis answered with a basket by Williams to put the Tigers back on top 70-69. Memphis held on from there and won for the seventh time in their last eight games.
Tied at 18-18 with 12:32 to go in the half, Lawson hit two 3-pointers and Davis knocked down one to fuel an 11-2 run that propelled the Tigers ahead 29-20 with just under nine minutes remaining until halftime.
A&M, forced to call a timeout after the second long-range shot by Lawson energized the FedEx Forum crowd, went a little over four minutes without a field goal before Taylor drilled a 3-pointer, cutting the Memphis lead to 29-23 with 8:20 to go.
The Tigers surged in front 37-24 with 5:34 to play after a jumper by Alex Lomax. The Tigers shot 56 percent from the floor in the first meeting between the two schools since the 2007 NCAA tournament.
–Field Level Media
