Tulsa’s Late Surge Too Much for UCF in 77-66 Win

Saturday, January 28

12:30 p.m.

Tulsa

12-8 (6-2AAC)

UCF

14-7 (5-4AAC)

UCF

Tulsa

Tulsa’s Late Surge Too Much for UCF in 77-66 Win

1/28/2017 4:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Don Tomkalski

BOX SCORE PDF I BOX SCORE HTML I POST-GAME QUOTES I VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS I PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO I SEASON STATS

Tulsa (12-8, 6-2 AAC) overcame a six-point deficit in the final seven minutes and went on for a 77-66 win over the UCF Knight's (14-7, 5-4 AAC) in front of 4,281 fans Saturday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. The win kept Tulsa in sole possession of third-place in the American Athletic Conference as the top two teams, Cincinnati and SMU, visit the Reynolds Center next week.

Senior Pat Birt led four double-figure scorers with 19 points to pace the Hurricane, followed by Corey Henderson's 14, Junior Etou's 12 and TK Edogi's 10 points. Tulsa scored 23 points off of 16 UCF turnovers and the Hurricane bench tied for its most scoring production of the season with a 42-to-15 edge over the Knights.

In the final 6:28, Tulsa overcame a 57-51 deficit and out-scored the Knights 26-9 for the 11-point victory. In that time span, the Hurricane connected on 18-of-19 free throws, while receiving two critical traditional three-point plays.

Edogi gave Tulsa a six-point lead on a dunk and free throw with 2:11 left in the game, while Jaleel Wheeler's layup and free throw put Tulsa ahead 69-62 with 1:04 remaining on the clock. From that point, a dunk off of a steal by Edogi and six consecutive free throws by Birt and the Hurricane was able to secure their eighth home win of the season.

The victory gives Tulsa a 19-3 record in league play since joining the American Athletic Conference before the 2014-15 season.

Tulsa's 77 points was the most scored against the Knights this year, bettering the previous high of 74 points. The Hurricane finished the game shooting 43-percent from the field, 35-percent from three-point range and 86-percent from the free throw line.

"It was a tremendous win. I thought we beat an obviously really, really good Central Florida team and did a really good job on Tacko Fall, which was a key going into the game," said Tulsa Head Coach Frank Haith.

"I thought we had a lot of production out of a lot of guys. At the ten-minute mark I really felt that we turned it up a level in terms of our intensity and we got some loose balls. I think that we were down six points near the five-minute mark, but finished the game incredibly well in terms of coming up with loose balls and knocking balls loose," added Haith.

Tulsa scored the first six points of the second half to take a 43-34 at the 18:23 mark on two Birt three-pointers. Then from that point on, Tulsa went scoreless for over six minutes to the 12:48 mark, while UCF went on a 12-2 run and tied the game at the 10:35 mark. The Knights took its first lead since 8:31 of the first half when Chad Brown scored on a layup to make the score 47-46 with 9:49 to play.

Rarely-used freshman guard Joseph Battle gave the Hurricane a spark off the bench when he scored two jumpers to put Tulsa back in the lead by one point each time, at 48-47 and again 50-49. The Knights then went on an 8-1 run for a 57-51 lead at 6:37 on the game clock before the Hurricane surged in the final six minutes for the victory.

Tulsa opened the game with a 7-0 run before the Knights made it 7-6 at the 15:40 mark. UCF's Matt Williams knocked down a three-pointer to give the Knights its first lead at 11-9 with 14:08 on the clock.

Wheeler's trey put the Hurricane back ahead 12-11 before UCF scored the next seven points to take its largest lead of the first half at 18-12. Tulsa tied the score a 20-20 on a Birt jumper and then ran out to a 28-22 lead on a Henderson trey with 5:24 left on the first-half clock.

The Hurricane led the remainder of the first half, with its lead going back and forth from three to six points, and went into intermission with a 37-34 lead.

Etou lead all first-half scorers with 12 points as the Hurricane connected on 45-percent from the field and 42-percent from three-point range in the first 20 minutes.

Tulsa continues their 3-game homestand next week as the top two teams in the American Athletic Conference standings come to town. The 19^th-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats (18-2, 7-0 AAC) will be at the Reynolds Center Wednesday night for an 8 p.m. game, followed by a Saturday game against the SMU Mustangs (18-4, 8-1 AAC) with a 6 p.m. tipoff.

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