National Basketball Association
Memphis 88, South Florida 73
When: 7:00 PM ET, Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Where: USF Sun Dome, Tampa, Florida
Officials:
# Rick Crawford, # Ron Groover, # Zelton Steed
Attendance:
4063
By SportsDirect Inc.
No. 17 Memphis 88, South Florida 73: Senior guard Geron Johnson scored 19 points and the visiting Tigers streaked past the Bulls in the American Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
Memphis (10-2, 1-0 AAC) used pressure defense and superior quickness to build a 48-32 halftime lead. Michael Dixon Jr. and Joe Jackson added 18 points apiece for the Tigers, who have forced 33 turnovers in their past two games.
Freshman center John Egbunu led South Florida (9-5, 0-1) with 20 points and 14 rebounds, and Victor Rudd scored 17 despite shooting 3-of-13. The Bulls played without junior point guard Anthony Collins, who missed his fourth straight game with a sore left knee.
South Florida had played eight straight games decided by five or fewer points until getting blown out Tuesday. The Bulls went 0-for-9 from beyond the arc and had more turnovers (13) than assists (10).
Jackson put the exclamation point on the first half, throwing down a vicious dunk at the buzzer. Johnson finished 8-of-13 from the field as he hit double figures for the fourth time in five games, adding five steals and four assists.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Memphis outrebounded South Florida 25-13 in the first half. … Memphis improved to 3-3 in road and neutral-site games, while South Florida fell to 6-3 at the Sun Dome. … The Tigers, who came into the game ranked sixth nationally with 10.2 steals per game, racked up 10 steals.
Top Game Performances
| Memphis |
|
South Florida |
|
Geron Johnson 19 |
Scoring |
John Egbunu 20 |
|
Michael Dixon Jr. 5 |
Assists |
Victor Rudd 3 |
|
Shaq Goodwin 10 |
Rebounds |
John Egbunu 14 |
|
Joe Jackson 9 |
Free Throws Made |
Victor Rudd 11 |
|
Geron Johnson 5 |
Steals |
Corey Allen Jr. 2 |
|
Austin Nichols 1 |
Blocks |
John Egbunu 1 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Memphis
|
88 |
50.8 |
8-20 |
14-22 |
18 |
38 |
2 |
10 |
12 |
| South Florida
|
73 |
42.3 |
0-9 |
29-41 |
10 |
31 |
3 |
5 |
13 |
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