Penny Hardaway beats Tennessee Tech for first win

University basketball was back. Hardaway was back. The crowd inside FedExForum knew that this one was real.

Spectacular start of seniors

But in the midst of so many new players – eight Memphis first-year players and a reworked coaching staff – it's the returning Tigers who made their mark early.

The veterans of the team scored 22 of his first 24 points.

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Memphis striker Kyvon Davenport faces Tennessee Tech defenseman Micaiah Henry in front of the Tennessee Tech defenseman at the FedExForum in Memphis Tenn., Tuesday, November 6, 2018. (Photo: Mark Weber, The commercial call)

Kyvon Davenport (30 points), Jeremiah Martin (18 points) and Kareem Brewton were a combined total of 14 out of 21 at halftime. The rest of the tigers were 4 out of 19.

"It was the first game for a lot of guys," Martin said. "We have a lot of freshmen, and now they can see the importance of seeing how everything counts now, and for the upper classes we have to lead more and be there for these guys."

Davenport finished with a career high of 30 points and added 10 rebounds.

"Maybe not 30 and 10, but we know that (Davenport) is a double-double machine, and we're going to need it all year," Hardaway said.

Davenport and Martin, the two senior Tigers starters, scored 63% of Memphis points.

Brewton was part of Hardaway's first round of substitutes early in the first half and dropped a 3-point shot from the corner just 11 seconds after the recording. He finished with seven points.

Increase the pressure

Brewton was also the player who increased the pressure on the defense.

The senior finished with four wins at the top of his team while he had only played 16 minutes.

Memphis forced Tennessee Tech to make 26 turnovers, another good performance on the defensive side after generating 27 turnovers or more in each of his two exhibition games.

The errors of the Golden Eagles translate into 27 Tiger points.

Including the two exhibition matches, the Hardaway team had 46 flights in its first three games.

Where can they improve?

The Tigers had just 13 assists to score 31 goals, a significant decrease from their home-team games against Division II opponents LeMoyne-Owen and Christian Brothers.

Part of this can be attributed to Memphis' struggles from outside. The Hardaway team only managed 6 of the 24 shots from the back and 42% for the match.

"All these attempts (3-point attempts) were wide open," Hardaway said. "… we had our shooter looks, they just did not make them tonight, we'll have the same looks and do them next time."

But perhaps the Memphis area with the greatest room for improvement would be visible.

Tennessee Tech outshot the Tigers 42-35, and Davenport was the only player to capture a double-digit rebound.

"I feel like the guards, we have to get more rebounds because they've been pounding the big guys all night," Martin said.

While Hardaway uses small formations to play at the top speed, the coach hopes that the rebound will become a collective effort.

"I went small to try to compensate for their size with our speed," said Hardaway. "I asked the guys to bounce back and we just did not do a good job when we were little, we wanted to try some things tonight, we could afford to do it even though we were overwhelmed but we're going to go from the front. "

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The Tigers will play their first game on the road at LSM number 23 next Tuesday.