Memphis basketball coach Penny Hardaway has taken some heat for his rapid-fire substitution patterns and his proclivity for unorthodox lineup combinations.

But as the Tigers were in the midst of a white-hot 45-9 run during Sunday's exhilarating 106-87 win over UAB at FedExForum, Hardaway never once thought about tinkering. In fact, he said during his weekly radio show Monday, he went against the wishes of two of his top stars, Jahvon Quinerly and David Jones, in the second half.

"They looked at me a couple times, David and Jahvon, about a sub, and I ignored them," Hardaway told show host Jeff Brightwell, which drew a big laugh from those on hand at Brookhaven Pub & Grill. "I did. I ain’t gonna lie. They were exhausted, (and) I knew they were exhausted.

"(But) I was like, I said, 'No sir, you guys have to stay out there.' "

The Tigers (22-8, 11-6 AAC) kept the same five-man group on the floor for the first 11 minutes, 49 seconds of the second half. That's when Nae'Qwan Tomlin picked up his fourth foul and Jayden Hardaway re-entered the game. Jones did not come off the floor in the second half until there was 1:20 remaining. Quinerly played until the 5:41 mark before being lifted — only to return 43 seconds later.

Memphis trailed UAB by 22 points in the first half. Then the Tigers started their run, becoming just the second team since 2010-11 to fall behind by 20 points and win the same game by at least 15.

Not even UAB coach Andy Kennedy getting slapped with back-to-back technical fouls for arguing with officials (leading to his ejection) could wrestle momentum away from Memphis. Hardaway said he didn't even say anything to his players about remaining focused as the sideshow played out.

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"I actually left all those guys alone, because they were so locked in," he said. "You can tell when you look at your guys that they're locked in. David made all four free throws and from there, we just took over the game."

Memphis, which led by 21 points, outscored UAB 60-26 in the second half. The Tigers committed only one turnover after halftime and had 13 assists on 22 made field goals. In the first half, they committed eight turnovers and had just two assists on 13 made field goals.

"I’ve had so many people tell me that was the best half of basketball they’ve ever seen, and I could say the same thing," Hardaway said.

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The Tigers are set to face FAU (22-7, 12-4) in Boca Raton, Florida, on Saturday (11 a.m. CT, CBS) in the regular-season finale. Memphis is in fourth place in the league standings at the moment. It could land as high as the No. 2 seed in next week's AAC tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, or wind up as low as the No. 7 seed, depending how things play out the rest of this week.

Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Why Penny Hardaway refused to sub out Memphis basketball stars vs. UAB