FORT WORTH, Texas — While Memphis was a lock to make the NCAA tournament even before tipping off in the American Athletic Conference Tournament championship game, coach Penny Hardaway and the 16th-ranked Tigers got another trophy on the way to Seattle.
PJ Haggerty scored 23 points and Dain Dainja had another double-double with 22 points and 12 rebounds as the Tigers beat UAB 84-72 on Sunday to wrap up the tournament after also winning the league’s regular-season title for the first time.
“We’re winners. We want to keep that winning edge and start the tradition going again of Memphis being associated with winning,” Hardaway said. “We don’t want to leave anything on the table that we have an opportunity to win. As long as I’m the coach here, we’ll never look at a tournament as just something to do just to get to the next thing.”
Memphis (29-5) is in the NCAA tournament for the 29th time, and the third time the past four seasons with the seventh-year coach who as player for the Tigers was part of the 1992 and 1993 tournaments. They are the No. 5 seed in the West Regional, and play Friday against Colorado State (25-9), which has won 10 in a row.
Haggerty put the Tigers ahead of UAB to stay with his tiebreaking bank shot with 16:10 left. The AAC player of the year later had a 17-second span when he drove the baseline for another shot off the glass, then had a steal that led to his fastbreak ending with a three-point play.
Yaxel Lendeborg had 19 points and 17 rebounds for the Blazers (22-12), last year’s AAC tournament champion who had to win the game that ended less than a half-hour before the Selection Show to get back to the NCAA Tournament. Efrem Johnson had 17 points.
Lendeborg’s 23rd double-double matched Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud for the most this season, but he was worn out after three double-doubles in as many days.
“I feel like I couldn’t go. But I had to, so I tried to push through it. It was hard to breathe,” said Lendeborg, who finished the AAC tourney with 72 points and 50 rebounds.
Dainja had his fifth double-double in eight games. Colby Rogers added 15 points for Memphis and Moussa Cisse had 14 rebounds.
It was a battle inside all day between 6-foot-9 standouts, and Lendeborg took a slap to the face from Dainja when trying to make a shot early in the second half. The foul was reviewed and upgraded to a flagrant foul and Lendeborg made both free throws to tie the game at 39-all with 16:54 left.
The Blazers maintained possession and Alejandro Vasquez made a go-ahead layup for their last lead. Dainja then had a tying layup before Haggerty put Memphis ahead.
“I never thought we really got comfortable. Some of that’s them. Some of that’s us,” UAB coach Andy Kennedy said. “When they made a spurt in the second half, we were unable to keep pace.”
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