Memphis Women’s Basketball {22-10} jumped out to a 26-10 lead over Ball State {26-9} after the first quarter and would never look back. The Lady Tigers would take advantage of this early lead to finish off the Cardinals 79-62 to advance to the Super 16 of the WNIT. We will look at some stats from Memphis tonight, some players who stood out, and what opponent they will meet in the next round.
Ball State – Round Two
Stats From Tonight
Memphis would finish the night 29/59 {49%} from the field, 9/22 {41%} from deep, and 12/16 {75%} from the free throw stripe. Memphis would continue to dominate on the boards by outrebounding the Cardinals 44-20 with a 12-1 advantage on the offensive end. Memphis would also use 19-second chance points combined with 16 points from the bench in this total team effort. The Tigers would control the paint as they would score 34 of their points down low today while going 11/18 on layups. Memphis would turn the Cardinals over 8 times and get 13 points off of these turnovers.
Memphis would have possibly their most efficient game as they would score 35/66 {53%} of its possessions. This would lead to a dominating night as the Tigers would control the game by leading for 39:45. The Cardinals would never hold a lead as the game would be tied for the first 13 seconds of the game.
What Tigers Stood Out
As we mentioned above this was a very efficient game, Jamirah Shutes would lead the Tigers in scoring with 23 points. Along with Shutes, we saw Emani Jefferson with 15 points, Madison Griggs scoring 11 points, and Hannah Riddick with 6 points and a team-leading 8 rebounds. As this season has progressed this team has proven that multiple players can score at a prolific pace on any given night.
On the season Shutes is averaging 26.9 minutes per game with a 35% field goal percentage. Griggs leads the team with 85 made three-pointers and a season average of 35% from deep. Griggs has been a consistent shooter her entire career at Memphis and has proven to be one of the best to ever do it for the Lady Tigers. Jefferson has made an immediate impact on this program. She averages 23 minutes per game and is shooting 47% from the field, 35% from deep, and 5 rebounds per game. Riddick has been another constant for this team as she has averaged 6.7 rebounds per game in what has been a domination in this category for this team this season.
Who is Next?
Memphis will travel to Bowling Green University in the Super 16 after they would defeat Green Bay, 69-51, tonight, to advance. This will be the first matchup between these two schools in history. The game is scheduled to tip off at 5 pm. This will be the furthest the Memphis program has been in this tournament since the 1999 season.
