Jeremiah Martin scores all his 41 points in one half but Memphis rally vs USF falls short

TAMPA, Fla. — At the sound of the halftime buzzer, Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway slowly walked from his bench to the visitor's locker room with his eyes fixed on the floor and his lips pursed. 

Hardaway's Memphis team, the highest-scoring team in the AAC, scored a season-low 13 points in the first half of their game vs. USF.

The Tigers' offensive play was a nightmare. The Bulls started by making everything. And for the third-straight game on the road, the Tigers trailed by more than 20 points in the first 20 minutes. 

"It's got to be the preparation before the game with those guys mentally," Hardaway explained. "They can't lock in and be ready to play when the game starts because if you're locking in there's no way you're going to come out and play with that type of energy three road games in a row."

And this performance, in particular, seemed destined to look exceptionally bad on the stat sheet.

GIANNOTTO:Penny Hardaway finally looked like a first-year college coach. It could be good for him.

That is, until Tigers senior Jeremiah Martin nearly made the unthinkable happen by scoring all of his 41 points in the second half. The effort was just a bit too late in an 84-78 loss. 

It took Memphis (13-9, 5-4 AAC) almost seven minutes to score its first point. It took Memphis nearly 10 minutes to make its first field goal. 

It took Memphis no time at all to look like the same team that lacks confidence on the road.

What Penny Hardaway said at halftime

With the exception of Martin, of course. 

The Tigers' senior set a career-high in points, despite being held scoreless in the first half. 

"I didn't have to challenge him at halftime," Hardaway said. "I challenged the team. I didn't just personally go at him. I just told our guys that we had to fight our butts off to get back in the game. I felt like we could."

Martin's 41 points set a Memphis record for points in a half, and the Tigers needed every one of them. It was also the most ever scored against USF (15-6, 5-4).

"A couple of the shots at the end were really well-contested," Bulls coach Brian Gregory said. "But that's what great players do."

Both of the Tigers' post players, Mike Parks Jr. and Isaiah Maurice, fouled out with over five minutes to play. Memphis' second-leading scorer, Kyvon Davenport, fouled out with a little over three minutes to play in a single-digit game. 

Even with the foul trouble, the Tigers' seniors scored all but seven of Memphis' 78 points. 

"It really doesn't feel good because we lost," Martin said. "If we would have won — great, I would have been happy."

Memphis falls behind USF 27-1

As the final seconds expired on USF's total domination of the Tigers in the first half, the home crowd rose to its feet to give the Bulls a standing ovation. 

South Florida took a commanding 27-1 lead and completely dismantled Memphis' offense for the first 20 minutes, forcing the Tigers to shoot 14 percent and give the ball away 13 times.

"This is usually what we do to teams on our home floor," Hardaway said. "It's so hard to win on the road. That's what they did to us."

Nine Memphis players finished the first half with at least one turnover, and four different players had more than one. 

No Tigers shot over 50 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes. South Florida, meanwhile, shot 52 percent from the field and 60 percent from beyond the 3-point line in the first half.

"Defensively, we weren't really doing bad stuff, they just made their shots," Hardaway said. "And we just couldn't make a shot in the first 10 minutes and that was the difference."

How Memphis came back in second half

It took just a little over four minutes for Memphis to match its entire first-half point total in the second half. 

And for the second game in a row, Memphis' press led its feverish comeback to cut the Bulls' lead to nine with four minutes to play. 

For as many times as the Tigers turned it over (20), South Florida easily surpassed that mark with 30. 

USF had 20 turnovers by the 12-minute timeout of the second half, and the Tigers forced 10 more to close the game. 

"I'm a fighter and I'm going to continue to fight," Hardaway said. "It's almost like the losing — it has to teach the kids a lesson. Because the coaches, we're aware of what can happen at any given moment."

Between the second halves at Tulsa and South Florida, the Tigers' press forced a combined 39 turnovers.

Each time Memphis has fallen behind on the road Hardaway's team has been able to cut the lead to single digits, but the latest loss drops the Tigers to 2-8 away from FedExForum. 

"For the boys, I think they need the losses, even though they hurt," Hardaway said. "You learn from them because they go, 'OK, we can be beaten by anyone.' Not just a Cincinnati or a UCF or Houston."

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