“We got punched in the mouth at the start of the second half and we didn’t recover,” Memphis coach Josh Pastner said. “As I told our guys in the postgame, there’s no time to have the woe-is-me syndrome, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. I was fine with our energy and effort. We just didn’t get the job done.”
The Tigers (16-5, 6-3), which moved with SMU from Conference USA to the AAC this season, had won 19 consecutive league road games — 16 in the regular season and three in the C-USA tournament last March — since a C-USA loss at Southern Mississippi exactly two years ago Saturday.
Memphis’ record is 27 consecutive conference road victories, a streak that ended with another loss at SMU four years ago.
Joe Jackson led Memphis with 22 points, while Geron Johnson had 18 and Michael Dixon Jr. 13. Dominic Woodson had 11 rebounds.