Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
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.
David Jones scored 11 points, and Caleb Mills added 10 for Memphis (4-0).
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 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