TU Takes Down Western Michigan in Tournament Opener, 81-74

Thursday, November 16

Conway, S.C.

7 PM

Tulsa

2-1

Western Michigan

1-2

Tulsa

Western Michigan

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

TU Takes Down Western Michigan in Tournament Opener, 81-74

11/16/2017 10:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Box Score (.pdf) | Box Score (.html) | Post Game Quotes

CONWAY, S.C. — Curran Scott led four players in double-figures with 17 points as Tulsa opened play at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off at Myrtle Beach with an 81-74 win over Western Michigan on Thursday night at HTC Center. TU now will face Iowa State at 6 p.m. CT on Friday evening in the event's semifinals, which can be seen on ESPNU.

Scott went 4-of-7 from the field and hit a pair of 3-pointers to go along with seven free throws to pace the Golden Hurricane (2-1). The sophomore had nine points, including all seven of his freebies in the second half. Junior Etou added 15 points, while Elijah Joiner and Sterling Taplin chipped in with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Joiner added seven rebounds and Geno Artison led the team with eight boards.

TU shot 50-percent and dominated in the paint, where it outscored the Broncos (1-2) 40-24. Ten of the 11 players that saw the floor scored, including DaQuan Jeffries and Martins Igbanu, who each finished with nine points.

"That was a great win for us," head coach Frank Haith said. "Our kids came out and battled hard early. Give Western Michigan credit, they never quit. It was pleasing that we played 11 guys and 10 guys scored so we kind of shared things around. I'm very proud of Junior (Etou), he made some plays down the stretch. He stayed with the flow, they double-teamed him a couple times and I thought he made some nice passes out of the double-team. It was just a complete win."

Meanwhile, Thomas Wilder needed 19 shots to score 19 points for Western Michigan, the preseason favorite in the Mid-American Conference. The Broncos were held to just 36.7-percent shooting.

Tulsa started fast and never trailed in the contest. Taplin got the Hurricane rolling with three early baskets as TU jumped out to a 9-3 lead. A 3-pointer from Wilder cut the Tulsa lead to 9-7 before the Hurricane responded with a 20-4 run to take control.

Igbanu started the run with the first of his nine first-half points before freshmen Darien Jackson and Joiner added a bucket inside and a 3-pointer, respectively. Artison then had an offensive rebound and putback that was followed by another jumper by Joiner.

Corey Henderson Jr. capped the run with a pair of free throws to make it 27-9 with 7:42 left in the first half.

Meanwhile, the TU defense allowed just two field goals over the first 12 minutes of the game and limited the Broncos to just 28.2-percent shooting in the half.

TU countered a Western Michigan spurt with an old-fashioned three-point play from Igbanu and a corner triple from Scott to help the Hurricane take a 43-27 advantage to halftime.

In the second half, the Golden Hurricane answered each charge by the Broncos and led by double-digits for most of the final 20 minutes.

A 6-0 spurt from Western Michigan trimmed the TU advantage to 10 with eight minutes to play, but Jeffries slammed home a rebound before Taplin found Jeffries and Scott on back-to-back possessions to extend the lead back to 16, 63-47.

The Hurricane led by 14 with 2:03 left and withstood a late barrage of 3-pointers by hitting all 10 of its freebies down the stretch. Etou put an exclamation point on the victory with a dunk as Tulsa took the 81-74 win.