MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It was all smiles between Landers Nolley II and Moussa Cisse, after the Memphis Tigers (2-2) defeated the Arkansas State Red Wolves (0-3), 83-54 in their home opener.
Nolley II led all scorers with 23 points and shot 8-17 from the field. He was removed from the starting line-up after the Tigers poor performance in South Dakota. Tigers’ coach Penny Haradway said he was pleased how Nolley stepped up, coming off the bench.
“Landers is a guy that scored 15.5 points per game in the ACC,” Hardaway said postgame. “That’s not easy to do when you’re playing Florida State, Duke, North Carolina and all those really good teams. If you can average that, it shows you can really put the ball in the basket. As far as scoring and shooting, he can do that with the best of them.”
Nolley wasn’t the only Tiger to have a good night at the Forum. Lester Quinones and Cisse both finished the game with double-doubles. 14 points and 10 rebounds for Cisse while Quinones had 15 points and 10 boards in 24 minutes, shooting 5-11 from the field.
Quinones said before the game he made a promise to himself to grab at as many boards as possible.
“I gave myself a goal of going in and getting 10 rebounds tonight,” Quinones said. “I felt like I needed to be relentless on the glass and I was locked in on doing that for my team.”
Despite the win, the Tigers still have many areas to improve on, mainly shooting from behind the arc. Memphis shot poorly Wednesday night from three-point range, connecting on only 6 of their 26 three-point attempts.
Additionally, DJ Jefferies’ struggles continue. In 21 minutes against AState, the former Olive Branch star scored just 8 points on 2 of 9 shooting including 0 for 3 from behind the arc.
Memphis is back at FedExForum on Friday for a 7 p.m. matchup with Central Arkansas in what will be the Bears’ first game of the season.