Southland Wins Three Games on Last Non-Conference Saturday
A nearly full slate of men’s basketball games in the Southland Conference on Saturday, but league teams came away with only three wins in the 11 games. Texas State beat Schreiner, Stephen F. Austin beat Jarvis Christian and UT Arlington beat Utah Valley. Lamar and McNeese State each lost to teams that played in last year’s NCAA tournament. Lamar lost at Memphis, which lost in the national championship game to Kansas, and Texas A&M beat McNeese. Three teams lost to 2008 NIT participants, including Florida State, which beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Also, Nicholls State lost at Ole Miss and Northwestern State lost at Oklahoma State. In other games, Central Arkansas lost to St. Bonaventure, UCF beat Sam Houston State and LSU beat Southeastern Louisiana.
UT Arlington 66, Utah Valley 57
OREM, Utah ? For the second consecutive game, the UT Arlington men’s basketball team used a strong defense effort and an outstanding shooting night to register a road victory as they defeated Utah Valley, 75-64, Saturday.
The Mavericks finished the game shooting 54.5 percent which was the second consecutive game in which they shot better than 50 percent. They also converted 14 Utah Valley turnovers into 25 points as they got back to the .500 mark at 6-6.
Marquez Haynes scored a career-high 26 points to lead three UTA players in double figures as the Mavericks won their second consecutive game.
Haynes was 10-of-17 from the field and got off to a quick start as he scored 15 of his points in the first half.
“I got some early looks in the game and they were letting me shoot so I tried to take advantage of that,” Haynes said.
“Marquez has really played well of late,” Mavericks coach Scott Cross said. “His game has really picked it and it showed tonight.”
UTA held a 36-27 halftime lead and extended that to 13 early in the second half but then had to work to seal the victory as the Wolverines got back into the game.
Utah Valley cut the lead to three with 11 minutes to play but the Mavs withstood that run and increased the lead back up to eight with seven minutes remaining.
The Mavs saw their lead cut to five at 61-56 a minute later before Haynes hit a 3-pointer and that was followed by nine consecutive points by Roge’r Guignard to seal the win. Guignard finished the game with 14 as did Brandon Long for UTA.
UTA held Utah Valley’s leading scorer Ryan Toolson to 17 points which is seven points under his season’s average.
“We thought if we had to make him work on the defensive end a little bit more it might take away some of his offensive abilities,” Cross said.
Haynes echoed his head coach’s comments on holding Toolson below his season’s average.
“It was a complete team effort tonight in trying to keep him off the scoreboard,” Haynes said.
The Mavs are getting closer to the end of their 10-game road trip on which they are now 3-5.
“We thought if we could get through this stretch of road games, we would be better off later in the season,” said Cross. “We have a veteran team and they know we are going to have to win on the road if we are going to be a factor in the conference race.”
The Mavericks return to action Wednesday at UT Pan American.
Texas State 98, Schreiner 57
SAN MARCOS, Texas ? Senior Brandon Bush and Brent Benson combined for 34 points and the Texas State men’s basketball team overcame a slow start and opened 2009 with a 98-57 victory over Schreiner University Saturday afternoon.
The Bobcats opened the game hitting six of their first 19 shots from the field, including 2-of-6 behind three-point line, and led 16-9 after the first eight minutes of the game.
Texas State held a 24-16 lead before closing the first half with an 18-9 run to take a 42-25 lead at halftime. Jonathan Sloan scored six points to lead the Bobcats during the late first half run, while Bush and Cameron Johnson added four points each. John Bowman closed the scoring with a slam dunk.
Bowman’s slam dunk woke up the sluggish Bobcats as Texas State opened the second half outscoring Schreiner 33-9 in the first 8:20 of the period. Benson scored 12 of his 16 points during that run and Bush added eight points and Cameron Johnson tallied six more points in the run.
Texas State cruised the rest of the way as Bush finished with a game high 18 points and eight rebounds. As mentioned before, Benson finished with 16 points while Johnson netted 11 and Dylan Moseley scored a season-best 10 points off the bench.
Ty Gough and Emmanuel Bidias A’ Moute scored eight points each, and Gough grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Jonathan Sloan finished with seven points and five rebounds, while John Rybak and Bowman netted five points each. Corey Jefferson also scored five points to go along with his game-high seven assists. Rybak and Jefferson led the Bobcats with three steals.
The victory evened Texas State’s overall record to 6-6 this season and the victory was the 100th career victory for Bobcat head coach Doug Davalos.
Schreiner fell to 1-9 this season as Ralph Turner, Chris Jones-Coyners and Riley Battle each scored 12 points to lead the Mountaineers.
Texas State returns to action this Tuesday night when the Bobcats play host to Northern Colorado at 7 p.m. in Strahan Coliseum. The two teams played in Greeley, Colo., earlier this season with the Bears prevailing 105-93.
The Bobcats open their conference schedule against defending Southland Conference tournament champion UT Arlington Saturday at 4 p.m.
Stephen F. Austin 69, Jarvis Christian 46
NACOGDOCHES, Texas ? Matt Kingsley scored 19 points and pulled down seven rebounds as Stephen F. Austin halted a two-game slide Saturday with a 69-46 verdict over Jarvis Christian in the William R. Johnson Coliseum. The win finishes SFA’s non-conference season with an 8-4 record and moves the Lumberjacks to a perfect 5-0 in home games.
A game after shooting their lowest percentage of the season in a loss at Texas Tech, the Lumberjacks held Jarvis Christian to only 13 made field goals and a 22.4-percent effort from the floor, the worst shooting percentage by an SFA opponent this season.
Another statistic from the Texas Tech loss that carried over in a positive way for the ?Jacks was rebounding. SFA pulled down a season-high 54 boards against the Red Raiders on Thursday, then posted a 53-36 advantage on the boards against Jarvis Christian on Saturday.
Redshirt freshman Jereal Scott and true freshman Zach Williams tied for the team lead with eight boards apiece. Senior center Benson Akpan joined Kingsley with seven rebounds and added 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
Kingsley posted a career-high with five blocked shots, including consecutive rejections on each of the Bulldogs’ first three possessions. He had four of his five blocks inside the game’s first five minutes.
The senior center’s fourth swat turned into a fast-break dunk by senior Nick Shaw at the other end after Girod Adams gathered in the rebound and pushed the ball up the court. The flush gave SFA an 11-0 lead with 15:39 to play in the half. The ?Jacks would push their edge to 13 points before the Bulldogs finally got on the board with a jumper at the 14:34 mark.
Jarvis Christian found its shot and trimmed the lead to as few as six points with 12:32 to play, but SFA pushed the lead back to 12 over the next four minutes and went to halftime with a 35-22 edge. The Lumberjacks shot 57 percent from the floor in the opening period after going inside for a 22-2 advantage in scoring from the paint.
SFA’s shooting cooled to 39 percent in the second half, but the Lumberjacks were still able to quickly stretch the margin to 21 points and led by as many as 31 down the stretch.
For the game, SFA shot 47.5 percent and outscored the Bulldogs, 38-12, in the paint. Fifteen of the Lumberjacks’ 53 rebounds came on the offensive end, as they posted a 17-5 margin in second-chance points.
Sophomore Eddie Williams just missed double figures with nine points and pulled down six rebounds. Junior forward Aaron Smith went 2-for-3 from 3-point range and finished with seven points, while Scott and Adams each added six points.
Adams was one of four players to post three or more assists on a night when SFA finished three off a season-high with 18. Eddie Williams also had three, while junior Eric Bell and freshman Jarrod McDaniel each dished out four. That backcourt quartet combined to commit just one of SFA’s 15 turnovers.
Akpan added three blocked shots to Kinsgley’s five as SFA posted a season-high with 10 rejections.
David Greene’s eight points led Jarvis Christian, marking the first time this season for the Lumberjacks to hold the opposition without a double-digit scorer.
The Lumberjacks will return to action Saturday, when they host Sam Houston State in the Southland Conference opener. The game against the Bearkats is scheduled for a 2:05 p.m. tip and will be televised on the Southland Conference Television Network.
St. Bonaventure 68, Central Arkansas 58
CONWAY, Ark. ? Central Arkansas Bears got close but could never overcome St. Bonaventure on Saturday afternoon at the Farris Center.
The Bonnies (9-4) won 68-58 behind a dominating rebounding effort and a solid performance at the free-throw line. SBU, from the Atlantic 10 Conference, shot 20 of 24 from the line (83.3 percent) and outrebounded UCA 45-31, including 13 offensive rebounds.
The Bears (6-6) fell behind in the opening minute of the game and never gained a lead, but battled throughout. UCA got to within three points, 29-26, early in the second half, then closed it to 41-34 with 10:20 remaining. But each time, the Bonnies answered to win for the sixth time in their past seven games.
“We played a really solid team,” UCA head coach Rand Chappell said. “I was scared to death of them before we started. But I told our guys I was really proud of them today. When you battle hard and you compete, you give yourself a chance to win.
“Now we’ve just got to execute a little better, shoot a little better.”
The Bears shot 33.3 percent overall but made only 12 of 22 at the line (54.5 percent). The Bonnies were 20 of 24.
“I felt like they killed us on the foul line, which they did,” Chappell said. “We basically shot the same amount and they made 20 and we made 12. That’s eight points in a 10-point game. You flip-flop that, we make eight more instead of them, we win by four.
“There are a lot of things that go on in a game, but it’s the little things, making some free throws, getting some rebounds.”
The Bears were playing without starting 6-foot-8 forward Chris Brown, out with a foot injury.
“We were a man short on the front line today,” Chappell said, “and we got outrebounded pretty good. I told them, they were in the battle, now they need to win the battle. I think we stayed in the battle in the second half, we just didn’t win enough of them on the glass.”
UCA, down by 11 at the 11:30 mark, got consecutive three-pointers from junior Mike Pouncy and freshman Dewan Clayborn to cut the deficit to seven. But SBU scored the next seven points and pulled away again. Junior forward Mitch Rueter scored the Bears’ final four points to close the final margin to 10.
Senior center Brian Marks pulled down 14 of UCA’s 31 rebounds, his sixth double-figure rebounding game of the season.
“I told the guys in pregame, Brian gets 12, 10, 9, 12 rebounds,” Chappell said. “He’s there every time. We were missing 5 or 6 with Chris being out, and we need some guys to step up and get some. Landrell Brewer got four but nobody else got much of anything. We’ve got to get more people contributing.”
Pouncy scored a team-high 15 for the Bears, including 5 of 6 at the line, while Rueter and Marcus Pillow added 10 apiece.
“I thought he (Pouncy) played hard and attacked the basket,” Chappell said. “He made a couple of three-point shots and we haven’t been able to get many guys making threes, so it’s nice to see those go in. He made his free throws. Mike had a solid game.”
UCA is at home again Tuesday night, hosting Haskell at 7 p.m. The Bears open Southland Conference play at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday. Game time is 7 p.m.
Oklahoma State 122, Northwestern State 73
STILLWATER, Okla. ? Northwestern State and Oklahoma State both started out hot Saturday afternoon, but the Cowboys never cooled off, having four players with 21 or more points in a 122-73 rout of the Demons.
Oklahoma State (10-3) shot 60 percent overall, 52 percent (15-29) on 3-pointers and 80 percent (35-44) on free throws. The game was tied at 21-all after the first eight minutes as Northwestern (8-7) came out blistering the nets too, hitting its first five 3-pointers while sinking 8 of its first 10 shots, but a rash of turnovers and missed shots were the fuel for a decisive run by the Cowboys.
Oklahoma State went on a 16-6 run over the next four minutes, making 7 of 8 shots, while Northwestern committed four turnovers. The Demons hung within 42-33 with 6:27 left in the half, but the Cowboys hit 6 of their next 8 shots and all five of their free throws to surge up 62-37 with 1:57 remaining.
“For the first 11-12 minutes, we did a lot of good things offensively, and most important, we competed and played at their level. But we had some turnovers that got Oklahoma State off and running, and they fed off our mistakes after that,” Demons coach Mike McConathy said. “Their shooting was tremendous, 20 out of 30 in the first half, and they didn’t cool off very much after halftime.”
Northwestern was outscored 19-2 in points off turnovers, and 16-2 on fast break points, while falling back 66-39 at the break. After making its first five 3-point tries, Northwestern missed the next 11.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma State barely cooled off, making 53 percent of its shots after halftime. The Cowboys made just seven turnovers in the game.
James Anderson, who had 19 by halftime, led OSU with 27 while playing 29 minutes. Terrel Harris scored 23 points in 31 minutes while Obi Muonelo had 22 points and 12 rebounds in 36 minutes. Keiton Page added 21 points in 26 minutes.
Damon Jones scored 12 and Michael McConathy 10 for the Demons, whose leading scorer, Devin White, was hit with three quick fouls and played only five minutes in the first half, just eight in the game before fouling out with only one basket, a 3-pointer.
“They’ve got very good athletes and they are a good perimeter shooting team, which was obvious today. They also took care of the ball very well so that we didn’t get any easy baskets from their mistakes,” said McConathy. “They were able to get to the free throw line and converted, and it just kept piling up on us. It didn’t help us to have our best player watching almost the whole day.
“It’s over now. We have 16 Southland Conference games left and we have a week to get ready for the first one,” he said. ”We have a lot of work to do, and the first thing is to put this behind us. We’ll be back out there tomorrow afternoon trying to get better.”
The Demons open their conference season at home Saturday against Nicholls.
Florida State 69, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 48
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ? Kevin Palmer recorded his third straight 20-point game and swiped four steals, but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was unable to overcome 21 turnovers and 34.5 percent shooting in a 69-48 loss to Florida State on Saturday afternoon at Tucker Center.
The loss was the second straight for the Islanders who fall to 6-8, while Florida State improved to 13-2.
“I was much more proud of the effort we played with today,” Islander coach Perry Clark, whose team lost 92-62, said. “We played a lot harder than we did at SMU, but we need to do a better job of execution.”
The Islanders fell behind early as they struggled with their shooting. A&M-Corpus Christi would hit just two its first 11 attempts of the game as Florida State jumped out to a 16-4 lead seven minutes into the game after four straight points by Derwin Kitchen and free throw by Ryan Reid.
Trailing 26-14, A&M-Corpus Christi would battle back as they began to warm up from the field hitting their final 9-of-17 shots from the field.
Down 26-14 with 5:44 remaining in the half, Kevin Palmer keyed an 8-2 run for the Islanders to cut their deficit in half. Palmer had half six of his 12 first half points.
After a basket by Kitchen, Palmer was fouled as hit a two-point bucket from just inside the three-point line to start the run. He scored moments later on drive to the basket. Following a fade away by Solomon Alabi, Demond Watt put down a dunk to make it 28-20 with four minutes to go. A layup by Palmer capped the run.
The Seminoles responded with a three-point basket by Luke Loucks that started a 7-1 run to end the half. The Islanders trailed 35-23 at the intermission.
In the second half, both teams exited the locker room cold with neither team scoring until Kevin Palmer converted a three-point play with at the 16:43 mark to make it a nine-point game, 35-26.
A&M-Corpus Christi cut its deficit to six, 40-34, with 11:09 remaining on a 15-foot jumper by Palmer.
“I thought we were exactly where we wanted to be when we got to within six points,” Clark said. “We self destructed. We had some turnovers and missed some shots, but the turnovers were critical. I thought we did a good of stopping them in their half-court offense but our turnovers allowed them to speed the pace of the game up.”
Dunks by Xavier Gibson and Chris Singleton started a 7-0 run that gave the hosts a 13-point lead, 47-34, with 9:13 remaining.
A&M-Corpus Christi pulled to within 10 after a free throw by Demond Watt and bucket by Palmer. The Islanders were unable to get closer the rest of the contest as they hit just 30 percent of their second half shots and 34.5 percent in the game
Palmer led all players with 21 points and added four steals. Watt was the only other Islander in double digits scoring 10 points. He missed his first double-double of the season and the second of his career with a game-high nine rebounds.
Douglas and Kitchen led Florida State with 17 and 13 points respectively. Singleton led the hosts with eight boards and five steals, while Alabi had five blocks.
Neither team shot free throws or three-point baskets well. A&M-Corpus Christi was 7-of-16 from behind the arc and the Seminoles were 4-of-14. Filip Toncinic hit a three-point basket late as the Islanders finished 1-of-12 and Florida State was 5-of-18.
A&M-Corpus Christi returns to Texas Tuesday at 7 p.m. when it concludes non-conference play at Houston.
Mississippi 53, Nicholls State 41
OXFORD, Miss. ? Nicholls State closed the gap to two points with just over 10 minutes to play, but Mississippi outlasted Nicholls, claiming a 53-41 victory Saturday afternoon at the Tad Smith Coliseum.
“We were a little flat putting the ball to the hole today,” Nicholls coach J.P. Piper said. “I’m not really sure why. We shot well yesterday and today before the game. Every now and then you have a game like this one where you just can’t seem to get the shots to go in. They played us in a zone, which played into our favor a little bit because we do shoot the ball so well, but it blew up in our face today.”
Pacing Nicholls (6-6) were senior forward Ryan Bathie and sophomore forward Anatoly Bose, who each reached double figures with 10 points.
Freshman Fred Hunter led the Colonels with six boards, including five on the offensive end.
Rebounding was even throughout the game, but the Colonels were strong on the offensive glass, where they grabbed 13 of their 27 in the game.
Sophomore forward Dominic Friend dished out four assists, followed by sophomore guard Kellan Carter’s three.
An offensive rebound and layup from the hands of Hunter gave the Colonels their first lead, 26-25, in the opening minutes of the second half.
Nicholls, who entered the game averaging 49.3 percent from the floor, was held to just 15-of-49 (30.6 percent) in the contest, while Ole Miss (9-5) shot 50.0 percent (19-of-38) for the game.
“I think we had some good looks,” Piper added. “We just couldn’t get them to go down. I was pleased with our effort to get to the glass, but unfortunately we weren’t able to do that late and they ended up shutting us out on the offensive glass toward the end.”
Bathie laid in two straight from underneath the basket to knot the game at 15 after the Colonels trailed by as many as seven early in the contest. Ole Miss pulled ahead again, leading by as much as eight (24-16) before a 6-1 run by the Colonels to close out the opening stanza sent the teams to the locker room with the score 25-22 in favor of the Rebels.
The Colonels will close out the non-conference schedule on Monday night, hosting Southern-New Orleans for a 6:30 p.m. tip in Stopher Gym.
UCF 86, Sam Houston State 70
ORLANDO, Fla. ? Corey Allmond scored 20 points to lead Sam Houston State as the Bearkats fell at UCF, 86-70, in their final non-conference men’s basketball game of the season. The loss dropped the Kats to 6-7 for the year. UCF upped its season mark to 9-4.
Sam Houston took an early lead, going up 12-4 on a DeLuis Ramirez layup at the 11:42 mark in the first half. But UCF bounced back with a 18-0 run, going up 22-12 four minutes later. Sam Houston never got closer than eight points the rest of the game. The Kats trailed 33-21 at intermission and were out-scored 53-49 in the second half.
Jermaine Taylor led Central Florida with 26 points. A. J. Rompza added 15. Preston Brown and Lance Pevehouse each had 12 points for Sam Houston State.
Central Florida totaled 37 rebounds to Sam Houston’s 27 boards, turning those rebounds into 20 second chance points.
Sam Houston hit 46 percent from the floor with 23-of-50 shooting. Allmond hit four three-point baskets.
The Bearkats will open Southland Conference action Saturday at 2 p.m. in Nacogdoches against Stephen F. Austin in a game to be regionally telecast on the Southland Conference Television Network.
LSU 90, Southeastern Louisiana 61
BATON ROUGE, La. ? Marcus Thornton scored a season-high 33 points while Tasmin Mitchell added 24 as LSU pulled away with a strong second half and defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 90-61, in the Lions’ final non-conference game Saturday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Bo Spencer added 17 points for LSU (12-1), which won its 74th consecutive game against in-state competition and improved to 12-0 at home. The Tigers outscored Southeastern (6-7), 51-30, in the second half with a decisive 16-5 run over a 5:42 span.
“Obviously we’re disappointed in the loss... LSU had a point to prove and wanted to go out in good fashion,” Southeastern head coach Jim Yarbrough said. “They came out in the second half and when they smelled blood in the water, they did a good job.
“We had a poor performance in the last 15 minutes of the game and when you play a lot of road games, go into a lot of buildings and maybe it’s too much for me to expect us to mature emotionally to keep battling back. But tonight we stopped and when we stopped playing the game was essentially over.”
Thornton went 11-for-17 from the floor and 4-for-7 from behind the 3-point line as LSU built a 39-31 lead at halftime. Mitchell finished 9-for-16 from the field as LSU went 31-for-66 (47 percent) in the game and forced 18 turnovers.
Southeastern, paced by 17 points from Patrick Sullivan, trailed 9-3 after a 3-pointer by Thornton before coming back with a 12-4 run. Chris Cyprian started the spurt with a 3-pointer before Warrell Span hit a jumper to get the Lions with within 9-8.
A layup by freshman DeShawn Patterson, making his second career start, with 12:45 remaining gave Southeastern its first lead of the game, 15-13, before Sullivan snapped a 15-15 deadlock with a jumper in the lane.
LSU took a 23-21 lead on Mitchell’s layup with 6:55 remaining in the first half and the Tigers never trailed again.
After Southeastern cut the lead to 39-35 on a jumper by Sullivan with 18:40 remaining in the game, LSU pushed its lead to eight capped by a pair of free throws by Thornton with 17:06 left.
Span cut the Southeastern deficit to 44-38 with a dunk off a fast break, but the Tigers scored the next 10 points as Mitchell scored on a short jumper and added a three-point play, Thornton nailed a 3-pointer and Spencer scored on a layup for a 54-38 lead with 14:49 remaining.
Span added 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds for Southeastern, which went 24-for-52 (46 percent) from the floor. Kevyn Green, the Southland Conference’s leading scorer (19.9) heading into the contest, was limited to six points on 2-for-7 shooting as he was hounded most of the night by LSU’s Garrett Temple.
Brandon Fortenberry added 10 points and a team-high four assists for the Lions, who dropped their third straight game and wrapped up a brutal non-conference schedule that included games at Arkansas, Texas Tech, nationally-ranked Minnesota and Auburn.
Southeastern opens Southland Conference action Saturday when it travels to Beaumont, Texas, to face Lamar in a 7:05 p.m. game at the Montagne Center.
Texas A&M 57, McNeese State 52
COLLEGE STATION, Texas ? Texas A&M only scored one field goal in the final eight minutes of play but came away with a 57-52 victory over McNeese State Saturday night at Reed Arena.
That field goal, at the 2:30 mark, came on a shot by Josh Carter and it snapped a 52 all deadlock. The Cowboys, who didn’t score a field goal in the final seven minutes of play, had trailed the Aggies by as many as 11 points in the second half but tied the game on a pair of free throws by Diego Kapelan with 3:20 left.
A 13-2 run enabled the Cowboys to deadlock the game.
The free throws by Kapelan were the last points in the game for the Cowboys. A&M went on to score three more points after Carter’s field goal, all at the free throw line.
The win lifted the Aggies record to 13-1 and increased their winning streak to eight. McNeese fell to 5-7 and absorbed its fourth straight setback.
Kapelan, who got his first start of the season in the game, came up with 15 points for the Cowboys while 6-foot-11 Kleon Penn had 15 points along with 10 rebounds and seven blocked shots.
Carter had 13 points for the Aggies while Chinemelu Elonu scored 15.
The Cowboys held a 39-33 edge in rebounding and blocked nine shots.
McNeese will be back in action Wednesday when the Cowboys host Wiley College.
Memphis 108, Lamar 75
MEMPHIS, Tenn. ? Antonio Anderson recorded the second triple-double in Memphis history and helped key a 16-0 run to allow the Tigers to pull away from Lamar for a 108-75 victory at the FedEx Forum on Saturday.
Lamar took its first lead of the contest at 12-9 on a Brandon McThay 3-pointer 5:02 into the game and held a 17-14 lead after a Tristan Worrell jumper with 14:06 left.
Memphis then went on a 16-0 run that contained three of its season-high 12 3-pointers. The Tigers entered the game shooting just 28 percent from outside with an average of just under six per game.
Tyreke Evans, who went 11-of-16 from the field, scored 25 points for Memphis (10-3). Robert Dozier finished with 19 points, and Shawn Taggart scored 15 points Doneal Mack had 14 for the Tigers (10-3).
Kenny Dawkins led Lamar (9-4) with 19 points, while Brandon McThay contributed 12. Charlie Harper netted a career-high with all 11 of his points coming after the midway point of the second half. Tristan Worrell added 11 and seven rebounds. Jay Brown led the Cardinals on the glass with 10 boards before fouling out with seven points.
Lamar shot 35.2 percent from the floor and just 26 percent from outside. They were productive from the free throw line, connecting on 20-of-24 for 83 percent.
Memphis, which won its fourth straight since a 72-65 loss to Syracuse on Dec. 20, shot 53 percent.
Lamar will be off for a week before opening defense of its Southland Conference regular-season title against Southeastern Louisiana at the Montagne Center on Saturday.