Taplin's Career Night Leads Tulsa Past UConn on Thursday, 73-71

Thursday, February 15

Hartford, CT

6 PM

Tulsa

15-10, 8-5AAC

UConn

12-14, 5-8AAC

Tulsa

UConn

Photo by: John Lew

Taplin's Career Night Leads Tulsa Past UConn on Thursday, 73-71

2/15/2018 8:55:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

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HARTFORD, Conn. — Sterling Taplin scored a career-high 30 points and Tulsa held off a late UConn rally to score a 73-71 win, its first-ever over the Huskies in Connecticut, on Thursday night at the XL Center.

Taplin went 10-of-12 from the field, including 7-of-8 behind the arc to lead the Golden Hurricane (15-10, 8-5), who picked up its fourth straight victory. The junior hit nine consecutive shots at one point and his layup with 40 seconds to go stopped an 8-0 run for the Huskies (12-14, 5-8).

He was joined in double-figures by Junior Etou with 15 points and DaQuan Jeffries, who came off the bench for 14 points and provided two highlight dunks to spark the Hurricane in the second half.

TU heated up to shoot a season-high 55.3-percent and scored 24 points in the paint.

"This is a great win for us," head coach Frank Haith said. "I thought our guys battled all night after being down at the half. I thought we shored our defense up in the second half. Sterling Taplin had a night. He was terrific. He made some big shots, got on a roll and we got some help off the bench from DaQuan (Jeffries). It's a big, big win for us and I'm proud of our guys."

Meanwhile, Christian Vital led UConn with a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds and Josh Carlton had 12 points. The Huskies were limited to just 36.7-percent shooting in the second half and 40.3-percent for the game.

Tulsa went to work erasing a nine-point halftime deficit by hitting 10 of its first 11 shots to start the second half and grab a 55-52 lead. The Hurricane outscored UConn 24-12 during that stretch, which was highlighted by back-to-back highlight-reel dunks from Jeffries that caused the Huskies to burn a timeout.

But UConn reclaimed a 57-55 lead before the Hurricane responded with an 8-0 spurt that included a pair of triples by Etou for a 63-57 edge. With just 2:36 to play, Etou found Lawson Korita and the sophomore knocked down a big 3-pointer that gave TU its largest lead of the night, 68-61.

The Huskies would not go away as Terry Larrier hit two triples of his own for an 8-0 run that gave the home squad a 69-68 cushion with less than a minute to play.

However, Taplin drove in for a layup with 40 seconds left and his length-of-the-court pass to Jeffries led to another layup that gave TU a 72-69 advantage with just 14 seconds to play. After a UConn bucket, the Huskies were forced to foul and Etou came up with the biggest offensive rebound of the night, as he scooped up a missed 1-and-1 and was fouled with six seconds left.

Etou would make 1-of-2 at the line and Jalen Adams' layup in traffic was off the mark as time expired, preserving the 73-71 Tulsa victory.

Taplin scored 14 points in the first half on 4-of-5 shooting from behind the arc, but the Huskies hit eight triples in the period to grab the lead early on the Hurricane.

Vital scored 13 points for the Huskies, including a run of 11 straight points to help UConn to a 19-13 advantage after the first 10 minutes. Back-to-back Taplin treys trimmed the deficit to 22-21 before a 13-3 UConn run that extended the lead to double-digits.

Free throws in the final minute of the half helped TU cut into the deficit, but UConn took a 40-31 cushion to intermission.

Tulsa will be back in action at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 18, when it will host USF (8-19, 1-13) at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

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