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Evans impressive as Memphis downs Massachusetts

Nov 18, 2008 - 8:45 AM MEMPHIS, Tennessee (Ticker) -- Tyreke Evans is following in the footsteps of talented freshmen at Memphis.

Evans scored 19 points to lead 12th-ranked Memphis to an 80-58 rout of Massachusetts on Monday.

The first-year point guard made 7-of-17 shots from the field and added six rebounds and four assists for the Tigers (2-0), who led by just eight points at halftime before taking control of the game after emerging from the locker room.

"We wore them down, which is what we do to teams," Memphis coach John Calipari said. "We keep running people at you. I think we did some better things in the second half. And again we wore them down. We just kept throwing people at you."

Evans has helped the Tigers forget about Derrick Rose, who was selected first overall by the Chicago Bulls during June's NBA draft after leading Memphis to the national championship game as a freshman last year.

Evans scored 19 points during his debut against Fairfield on Saturday and was equally as effective against the Minutemen. He poured in all 11 of his first-half points in the final 6:25 of the opening frame to give the Tigers a 33-25 lead.

He scored the first four points of the second half for Memphis, starting a 12-4 surge that gave the Tigers an insurmountable 16-point advantage with 15:33 left to play.

But, Calipari was not overly happy with either Evans' or his team's performance.

"I'm just happy the game is over," he said. "I'm learning about my team. ... Tyreke (Evans) made some awful decisions. We were 2-of-19 from the three (-point arc). Are we going to be that bad? No. But, we are right now. A couple guys are pulling back instead of letting it go."

Robert Dozier scored 18 points and Antonio Anderson contributed 15 and 12 rebounds for the Tigers, who limited Massachusetts to 30 percent (20-of-66) shooting from the floor.

The Minutemen (1-2) particularly struggled from the arc, making just 5-of-24 (20 percent) 3-pointers en route to their second straight loss.

Ricky Harris led Massachusetts with 17 points while Tony Gaffney scored 16 and pulled down 19 rebounds.

"I want to mention and recognize how unbelievably Tony Gaffney played tonight," Minutemen coach Derek Kellogg said. "We just needed one more Tony Gaffney out there; a guy who can do all the little things and play hard all the time.

"In the second half, we wore down a little bit and didn't execute the game plan. ... We're going to have to do some things in practice to where they're actually running the defense instead of (the coaching staff) having to tell them what to do every sequence."