November 23, 2008 | AP Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Terrell Holloway made 10 free throws without a miss and finished with 13 points to help Xavier beat Memphis (No. 12 ESPN/USA Today, No. 13 AP) 63-58 on Sunday night in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off championship game.

B.J. Raymond and Jamel McLean added 11 points each for the Musketeers (5-0), and C.J. Anderson finished with 10.

“I’m really proud of our team,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said. “We really showed a lot of toughness and resiliency in all three games in the tournament.”

Tyreke Evans led Memphis (4-1) with 12 points, but was 4-for-16 from the field. Robert Dozier and Antonio Anderson each scored 10 points.

Both teams struggled from the field, with Xavier shooting 36 percent and Memphis finishing at 32.7 percent. Xavier was 25-for-37 at the line, and Memphis was 15-of-30.

“We’re disappointed with the outcome, but November games are about learning about your team. We did tonight,” Memphis coach John Calipari said.

Holloway made two free throws with 27 seconds to go to give Xavier a 61-58 lead. After Dozier missed two three throws with 17 seconds left, Dante’ Jackson and C.J. Anderson hit free throws in the final seconds to seal the victory.

“C.J. has great toughness,” Miller said. “He’s an incredible leader. Our team follows his lead, especially in toughness.”

Memphis was 38-2 last season, losing the national title game to Kansas in overtime.

“This year’s team is so different from last year’s team and the year before. What disappointed me were our seniors down the stretch,” Calipari said. “Hopefully, we get better as the season goes on. We had chances to win the game, but didn’t make the plays we needed to make to win. We had some guys that played tentative and not to lose tonight. I want guys to make plays and play to win. I wanted this game to be close.”

Xavier opened the tournament with a 75-71 victory over Missouri, then beat Virginia Tech 63-62 in overtime.

“These were three great tests for us,” Miller said. “All three teams attacked us and we responded.”

November 18, 2008 | AP Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – During his years as a Memphis assistant, Derek Kellogg had seen the Tigers’ formula in many of their wins.

Let the opponent hang around for a bit, then start throwing more players at them, run them until they wear down and pull away in the second half.

Monday night, Kellogg — in his first year as Massachusetts coach — was on the receiving end of the tactic.

Antonio Anderson had 15 points and a career-high 12 rebounds as No. 13 Memphis shook off a poor shooting performance to beat Massachusetts 80-58.”I’ve seen it before on that bench numerous times,” Kellogg said.

“Their process is, ‘We have more bodies than you. We have bigger, longer players than you, and we’re going to wear you down.’ At the end, they take advantage of it, and that formula worked again.”

Freshman Tyreke Evans had 19 points and Robert Dozier added 18 for the Tigers, who were limited to 39 percent shooting for the game, including 2-of-19 from outside three-point range. It marked the second straight game where Evans, one of last season’s prized recruits, led the Tigers (2-0) in scoring. Evans keyed a first-half rally that put the Tigers up for good.

“There were a lot of things that I didn’t like,” Memphis coach John Calipari said. “I’m going to go watch tape and probably pull my hair out.

“Ricky Harris led the Minutemen (1-2) with 17 points; Tony Gaffney scored 16 points and grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds.

Calipari became the winningest coach in Memphis history with 221 victories, surpassing Larry Finch, who led the program from 1986 to 1997.The game was a real family affair.Kellogg, in his first year as coach at UMass, played for Calipari from 1991 to 1995 during Calipari’s tenure as coach of the Minutemen. Kellogg was an assistant under Calipari for eight years at Memphis before moving to his alma mater.

The Memphis crowd gave Kellogg a standing ovation when he was introduced at the start of the game.And, if that isn’t enough, Calipari’s daughter, Erin, is a fourth-year student at UMass. Calipari’s wife, Ellen, and his other daughter, Megan Rae, wore shirts representing both schools.Both coaches said afterward that they were just glad the game was over.

“Driving down, I thought: ‘If Derek wins, this would be a huge game for him on ESPN for recruiting,’ ” Calipari said. “Then I said: ‘Forget that.’ “Memphis built the lead to double digits in the first half and extended it to 27 in the second.

UMass was without 7-foot-1 senior center Luke Bonner, who injured his left knee in an 80-73 loss at Southern Illinois last week. In the second half Monday, the Minutemen lost 6-7 reserve forward Matt Hill to a left Achilles injury. But Gaffney’s effort allowed UMass to outrebound the Tigers 49-48.

“Tony Gaffney’s been absolutely phenomenal,” Kellogg said. “If we had two more of him, we’d have a pretty good record. We’re pretty thin, right now.”While Memphis struggled from the field, UMass was even worse, shooting 30 percent. Add in 24 turnovers, and the Minutemen were unable to stay in the game in the second half.The Tigers led 33-25 after a first half filled with poor shot selection, sloppy ballhandling and plenty of misfires from both teams.Harris was 3-of-5 from three-point range to lead UMass with 12 points in the first half.

Dozier had 12 points for Memphis and Evans had 11, seven coming during an 11-0 run that erased an early UMass lead and put Memphis up by double digits.

Dozier got inside for a handful of baskets to keep the Tigers in the game early, but turnovers, shots that barely caught the rim and difficult unsuccessful layup attempts led to anemic shooting percentages.

UMass shot 28 percent for the half; Memphis connected on 33 percent, but missed 11 of 12 3-pointers.

Memphis rebuilt the lead to double digits when Shawn Taggart, who had seven points and 11 rebounds, converted a three-point play with 15:37 left in the game, and Massachusetts never got the deficit to less than 10 the rest of the way.

“Guys just didn’t make shots,” Anderson said of the Memphis shooting. “That’s how it goes. … When guys aren’t making shots, we’ve got to figure out another way to earn the win. We did that by driving the ball and attacking the rim.”