LAS VEGAS – The University of Memphis men’s basketball team improved to 2-0 on the season with a road win over UNLV, 80-74, at Thomas Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday.
 
The Tigers were led to their first win over the Runnin’ Rebels since 1970 by redshirt-sophomore guard PJ Haggerty‘s game-high 29 points on 10-of-18 shooting. He knocked down 9-of-12 from the charity stripe, dished out three assists and pulled down three boards.
 
Memphis trailed by as many as 12 points late in the first half and went into the break facing a four-point deficit. The Tigers rallied back in the second half for the second time on the young season to outscore UNLV by 10 behind a staggering 71.4 percent shooting to secure the six-point road victory.
 
Senior forward Nicholas Jourdain chipped in a dozen points with an 11-point second half and shot 5-of-5 from the field for the game. Redshirt-senior guard Colby Rogers knocked down a pair of triples to go towards a 16-point night, adding seven rebounds and a pair of assists.
 
Tyrese Hunter and Dain Dainja contributed nine points apiece while Dainja led the Tigers with 11 rebounds and tallied four assists to finish just short of a double-double.

A slam from Dainja followed by an easy lay in fromHaggerty made for a high energy start for Memphis.

While UNLV started off slow, the Rebels caught momentum off a 7-0 run midway through the half that put the Tigers down 14-9 heading into the under 12-minute timeout. Memphis would come back and tie the game at 14 after Rogers drained a short jumper from the wing, but the Rebel offense came alive and took as much as a 12-point lead.

Free throws kept the Tigers in the game late in the opening half when Dainja, Haggerty and Rogers combined for six makes from the charity stripe while Rogers’ lay-up with just over a minute left in the frame made it a 29-27 game.

Despite the Rebels adding in five quick points before the buzzer, Rogers drained a bucket from distance as the Tigers faced the 34-30 deficit heading into halftime.

It was a different story for the second half; after sitting much of the first half due to fouls,Jourdain came in with the hot hand. Two heart-pumping slams and a three-pointer from the near wing got the Memphis offense going.

Freshman Baraka Okojie got in on the fun to cut the Tigers deficit to just two when he nailed a triple from the same wing as Jourdain with 13:12 left in the half.

The Tigers and Rebels traded baskets through much of the half before a Jourdain to Dainja connection with just over six minutes left in the half gave Memphis its first lead since that start of the game.

Back-to-back buckets from Jourdain and Haggerty gave Memphis a 72-69 advantage heading into the final minutes of the game. A completed and-one from Hunter gave the Tigers their largest lead of the night at six with less than 90 seconds left on the clock.

Haggerty iced the game with two made free throws in the final 15 seconds to secure the 80-74 win.

Memphis will be back at home on Friday, Nov.15 for a 7 p.m. tipoff against Ohio inside FedExForum. Coverage of the game can be found on ESPN+.

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