COLLEGE STATION, Texas — When Jahvon Quinerly knocked on David Jones’ door inside The Stella Hotel, he knew he wouldn’t have to say much.

Memphis’ veteran duo has met before and after each of its nine games so far. So this time — before the Tigers tipped off Sunday against No. 21 Texas A&M in College Station — was no different.

What was different, though, was the fact that Quinerly and Jones were as much on the same page as they’d ever been since joining the program as transfers late in the offseason.

Memphis gives its season new life with upset victory over No. 21 Texas A&M

That much was evident in an 81-75 upset victory for the Tigers (7-2) over the Aggies (7-3) at Reed Arena.

“We’re all double-digit scorers coming from different teams,” Quinerly said afterward. “It was tough for us to gel in the beginning of the season, because everybody has a scorer’s mentality.

“I was just speaking on following our game plan, sharing the ball, making one more pass, driving and kicking. That’s the only way we’re gonna be successful.”

Team-wide conversations began the day after Memphis needed overtime to outlast a Virginia Commonwealth club that was clearly inferior in talent last Wednesday.

Quinerly felt then that enough was enough. So he and teammate Malcolm Dandridge organized a series of player-led meetings over the three days that led up to the matchup with Texas A&M.

For the better part of the past two weeks, the Tigers had primarily played one-on-one ball on offense, routinely miscommunicated on defense and given lackluster effort in rebounding. It led to a blowout loss to Villanova in the Bahamas, a close defeat to Ole Miss in Oxford and a win versus VCU that came by the skin of their teeth.

Not too much of that was on display during a game Sunday in which they out-rebounded (37-35) one of the best rebounding teams in the country, tallied their most assists (15) since a Nov. 10 road win over Missouri and held their opponent to a dismal 18.2% mark from 3-point range.

Jones led the way with a team-high 29 points and seven rebounds. By halftime, the 6-foot-6 wing had already chalked up 21 points — the most he’d had in one half this season, topping his 17 points before the break in a Thanksgiving Day win over Arkansas in the Bahamas.

But, in the second half, Jones remembered Quinerly’s words.

With Texas A&M’s defense hyper-focused on him, he deferred to his teammates. It resulted in Quinerly scoring 15 of his 24 points after the break and Caleb Mills putting up 11 of his 13 in the same frame.

“These are like my brothers,” Jones said with a smile. “So when I see my brothers winning, it makes me happy. So I was just like, ‘It’s y’all’s turn. Y’all got it. I don’t need to shoot the ball no more. I know y’all got it.’”

They did, indeed. All of them.

Tigers focused on improving collective ‘mindset’ ahead of Texas A&M game

Players moved well without the ball, made the extra pass and, according to coach Penny Hardaway, were “talking and pointing” on the defensive end. The entire performance was unselfish — something the Tigers admittedly have seldom shown since the first few games of the season.

Quinerly was convinced his and Dandridge’s efforts to gather the troops had paid dividends when Memphis found itself up by 14 with 2:38 remaining in an arena that hadn’t seen an A&M loss since Dec. 20 of last year (against Wofford).

The Aggies made a late push to cut their deficit to just four points with seven seconds to go. The Tigers stood strong.

After seeing the tangible result of their changed mentality, Quinerly believes he and the Tigers are now more “open to coaching from teammates.”

While all the meetings Quinerly had with his teammates were important, he knew the ones with Jones carried a different weight. Quinerly wanted Memphis to officially buy-in on Jones being the team’s “go-to guy.”

Hardaway says Jones is ‘one of the best’ to come through Memphis. He may not be wrong.

That came with a decent set of responsibilities, though — heavier than the ones other players in Memphis’ locker room have to carry.

“We know he’s our go-to guy; he knows he’s our go-to guy,” Quinerly said. “We’re just trying to get him to make the right play now. Because defenses are loading up against him. So if he gets off (the ball), he did his job — he’s creating advantages for us, and we’re creating advantages for him.”

Quinerly and Hardaway alluded to distractions having weighed Memphis down when they spoke to reporters after the game.

Though they didn’t go into detail, Quinerly did say that with Jordan Brown not presently with the team — “I don’t even know what’s going on with that situation,” he quickly added — the Tigers would need to come together even more.

And that’s exactly the plan they’re looking to stick to.

Together.

Jahvon Quinerly enjoys the here and now with Memphis

So what more even needed to be said in the one-on-one Jones and Quinerly had at the team hotel before their bus ride to Reed Arena?

Jones said the message was simple.

“Play hard and follow Penny and whatever he says,” Jones said. “And just stay together for 40 minutes. If we stay together for 40 minutes, then whatever happens at the end of the game, we’re gonna live with it. But we’ve gotta stay together, because this is a family.”