HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

No. 17 Memphis 76, Central Florida 67: Chris Crawford and Joe Jackson scored 19 points each to lead the visiting Tigers to their sixth outright Conference USA regular-season title.

Adonis Thomas added 12 points for Memphis (25-4, 14-0 C-USA), which rebounded from Tuesday’s non-conference loss at Xavier – ending an 18-game winning streak. The Tigers have won 12 of their last 13 road contests.

Keith Clanton finished with 29 points – his fourth scoring effort of at least 26 points this season – to pace the Knights (19-10, 8-6).

Calvin Newell scored seven of Central Florida's first 14 points as the Knights raced out to a 10-point advantage less than six minutes into the contest. Memphis quickly rallied but did not take its first lead until Crawford sank two 3-pointers and added a dunk over a 1:05 stretch near the end of the opening half.

After the Golden Knights pulled even with the Tigers at 38 following an early second-half surge from Clanton, Crawford bookended a 16-5 run with jumpers to give the Tigers a double-digit cushion. Crawford later sank another 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 13 and Memphis did not let its lead dip below six the rest of the way.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Memphis coach Josh Pastner became the sixth coach in school history to reach 100 career victories. He needed only 132 games to reach the century mark, becoming the second-fastest Tigers coach to reach the benchmark. … Clanton entered Saturday shooting 8-for-50 beyond the arc this season, but sank three of his four attempts in this contest. … Crawford appeared to sprain his right ankle defending a jumper from Matt Williams with 2:08 remaining, but returned to the game after the next dead ball.