ORLANDO, Fla. _ The ball hung in the air for what seemed an eternity but in actuality, it was nothing more than a split second.
A split second would be all it would take as Kareem Brewton Jr.'s 24-foot runner at the buzzer would give Memphis a thrilling last-second win over Tulsa, 67-64, in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference tournament Friday.
"It was just basketball instinct that you have when the ball comes off good, you feel like it's going to go in and that's what happened. It went straight through the net," Brewton said of the shot and its certainty following the win.
"It was certainly a clutch shot that Kareem Brewton made there at the end," Memphis coach Tubby Smith added. "I thought our guys showed a lot of, again, courage and a lot of heart and a lot of toughness."
The Tigers (21-12) will face top-seeded Cincinnati Saturday in the semis at 1 p.m.
It was tough going early on as both teams struggled to find any sort of shooting rhythm especially Tulsa (20-12), which went 0 for 10 from the perimeter in the first half including 0 for 9 from 3-point range. Much of the Golden Hurricanes success came inside the paint as the team accounted for 16 of its 25 points from inside the arc.
Memphis didn't fare much better with the team forced to pound the ball inside much of the game. Early on, at least, it proved beneficial for the Tigers who climbed back from an early six-point deficit to grab a one-point 26-25 lead at the half.
"We didn't shoot the ball well, we had some really good looks, we just didn't knock any of them down," Tulsa coach Frank Haith said of his team's performance. The Golden Hurricanes received a first-round bye, something Haith believes might have accounted for his team's lackluster performance.
"I'm not going to make excuses for anything, but we get in 7:00 this morning for about 20 minutes in the gym. So when you get a bye, you don't get opportunities to get in," he added.
Memphis would extend its halftime lead to as many as 11 points midway through the second half before Tulsa would make a run to tie the game at 50 apiece with 7:28 left in the game. The teams would go back and forth for much of the remainder of the half, tied at 61 with 1:10 left.
Memphis' Kyvon Davenport was fouled while hitting a 3-pointer from the left side with 29 seconds left in the game, giving the Tigers a 64-63 lead. He would miss the free throw.
On the ensuing play, Tulsa's Martins Igbanu was fouled and went to the line with 3.5 seconds left. He missed the first free throw but made the second one after a timeout to tie the game at 64 apiece.
Tulsa finished 16 of 29 from the free-throw line, the third-worst shooting performance from the charity stripe this season for the Golden Hurricanes.
Brewton would take the inbounds pass and set up the winning play.
