Powerful Memphis dishes out 87-57 loss to Redhawks

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Once Memphis started taking the ball to the glass against Southeast Missouri State, the Tigers' offense was much more effective.

Elliot Williams scored 20 points, grabbed nine rebounds and handed out eight assists Tuesday afternoon to lead host Memphis to a 87-57 victory.

The Tigers shot 58 percent (18 of 31) after halftime, connecting on half of their eight 3-point shots, to pull away from the Redhawks.

"They went to a zone, and that kind of made us settle a little bit," Williams said. "In the second half, coach [Josh Pastner] was stressing driving it and getting easier shots."

Doneal Mack added 19 points on 7 of 11 shooting from the field, including 4 of 8 from beyond the arc, as Memphis (8-2) had five players score in double figures.

Southeast Missouri State guard Marland Smith tries to steal the ball from Memphis guard Willie Kemp during Tuesday's game in Memphis, Tenn. (LANCE MURPHEY ~ Associated Press)

Wesley Witherspoon had 15 points, while Willie Kemp and Pierre Henderson-Niles finished with 10 apiece.

Cameron Butler led Southeast (4-8) with 16 points and three steals, while freshman Marland Smith scored 15 on 6 of 12 shooting while grabbing a team-high six rebounds. Another freshman, LaQuentin Miles, led in assists with six off the bench.

"Cameron and Marland made some good plays and gave us a big lift, especially in the second half," Southeast coach Dickey Nutt said. "They continue to get better each game."

Anthony Allison, Southeast's leading scorer with a 10.5 average entering play, was held to five points, missing nine of his 10 shots from the field. The Redhawks shot 38.5 percent (20 of 52) for the game and were outrebounded 42-28.

"It was an experience," Smith said of facing the Tigers. "We wanted to come out as hard as we could and see how we could match up with them. If we could play with them, we can play with anybody in our conference [Ohio Valley]."

Despite dominating the boards, causing turnovers and holding the Redhawks to poor shooting, Memphis hardly looked smooth at times. There seemed to be a lack of intensity, and offensively, shooters were willing to settle for long-range attempts against the Southeast zone, until the second half.

Williams began going to the basket, and Mack's 3-pointer with just under 12 minutes left gave Memphis a 21-point lead at 58-37.

"We knew we were outmatched," Smith said, "so we were trying anything and everything just to try and keep up."

Memphis was coming off a last-second 73-72 loss to Massachusetts on Saturday. The Tigers were outhustled in that game and beaten on the boards.

Things were a bit better Tuesday as the defense caused problems for the Redhawks from the start. Southeast missed its first six shots on the way to shooting 32 percent (8 of 25) before the break.

"We had some inside play, a little outside play, and we had a chance to hang around in the first half a little bit," Nutt said. "I was very proud of that. A loss is a loss. We can't stand losing, but we'll get back to our conference and trying to build our program."

Memphis carried a 36-22 lead into the locker room behind 10 points from Mack, whose 3-pointer at the horn gave the Tigers their 14-point advantage.

The Memphis defense caused 11 of Southeast Missouri's 17 turnovers in the first half. The Redhawks' poor shooting included missing six of nine shots outside the arc before intermission.

"I thought we obviously did a better job on the glass," Pastner said, comparing Tuesday's win to the Massachusetts loss. "Our goal was to keep [Southeast] in single-digit offensive rebounds, and we did that. We held them under 40 percent shooting and under 30 percent from 3-point range, which are rules of ours."

Southeast, which never led or was tied, pulled to within 43-33 early in the second half before Memphis broke things wide open for good.

"I was proud of the way we played today," Nutt said.

The Redhawks will be off until Jan. 2 when they resume Ohio Valley Conference play at home against Tennessee Tech. Southeast is 1-1 in the OVC.

"We're going to get back to work and get ready for our conference," Nutt said. "We're looking forward to playing somebody our own size so to speak."

Southeast Missourian sports writer Marty Mishow contributed to this report.