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Tulsa Stomps Sooners
12/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
January 10, 1985
Tulsa, Okla. - By Charlie Smith
Tulsa, wire to wire. And, no, the University of Oklahoma basketball team won't be back-at least, not with Billy Tubbs as coach.
The Hurricane played what coach Nolan Richardson called "our greatest half of basketball ever" in the first 20 minutes Wednesday night. Then Tulsa withered through a 1-for-15 shooting slump in the second half.
"We played so good for awhile that we lost our intensity," said Richardson.
But when all was said and done, the Convention Center Arena sellout crowd of 9,200 holders of the hottest ticket in Tulsa in many years, was singing "The Goodbye Song" and Tubbs was sitting with his arms folded, as serene as he had been impulsive earlier.
The result was a 104-89 Tulsa victory.
It was Richardson's fourth victory without a loss to Tubbs since the two moved from Texas and became cross-state head coaching rivals five years ago. Tulsa advanced its record to 10-2 and Oklahoma slipped to 10-4. Wednesday night's game was the long-delayed postponement from a year ago when Tubbs backed out of the last game of a home-and-home series.
But as far as the Sooners' coach is concerned, the deed is done-and all future bets are off. Tubbs was slapped with two technical fouls, one by Ron Zetcher and another by Ron Spitler, in the first half-and he left no doubt he thought the officiating hurt his team's chances.
"I don't think you'll see me back over here," said Tubbs. "Tulsa has a standing invitation to play in Lloyd Noble Center and I'll name the officials. I've been here before. I knew what was coming. We won't be back."
TU played an inspired first half against the No. 8-ranked team in the country twice building 20-point leads only to falter in t he last four minutes. But the Hurricane still led by 60-47 at intermission, far more than even its most wild-eyed supporters could have dreamed.
Then Tulsa scored the first eight points of the second half for what proved to be the biggest lead of the game at 68-47. Shortly thereafter, the Hurricane endured the prolonged cold spell. Only one shot in 15 would fall in a five-minute stretch, and Oklahoma narrowed the gap to 76-66 during TU's sweaty-palms time.
"We got great shots, the best shots we've had in any game," said Richardson. "If we had hit some of those wide-open shots, we wouldn't have had to struggle."
David Moss finally ended the slump with a corner jumper at 10:13 and Harris followed with a tip-in at 9:41.
OU, however, wasn't ready to head for the bus just yet. The Sooners, with two-time All-America Wayman Tisdale on a tear, cut the gap to 83-78 and put David Johnson on the free-throw line for a two-shot foul 6:43 from the end. Johnson missed both. Anthony Fobbs' turnaround 10-footer was offset by two free shots by Anthony Bowie.
But then Herb Johnson, a tower of strength throughout the game for the Missouri Valley Conference favorites, sank a baseline jumper at 5:40 and Harris stole the inbounds pass and knocked in two free throws after he was fouled by Daryl Kennedy at 5:40.
Another OU miss and Fobbs banged down two more free shots at 5:09. Bowie scored again with a jumper from the key, but Fobbs hit a short turnaround and Johnson made another of TU's 16 steals and scored off an alley-oop pass from Byron Boudreaux.
At that point with 3:16 to play, TU led, 95-82, and OU's comeback chances had vanished.
Harris scored 25 of his game-leading 35 points in the first half when he was nine of 11 from the field. Johnson added 24.
Bowie and Tisdale, who was forced to score most of his points on stick-backs and free throws, were Oklahoma's lone double-figure scorers with 26. That left Tisdale only six short of breaking the Big Eight Conference scoring record of 2,114 points set by Kansas State's Mike Evans (1974-78).
But Tisdale, who found himself surrounded by TU players much of the night, was less of a factor than usual since OU spent the entire game in a catch-up position. He did dominate the backboards with 17 rebounds and was the only 40-minute player.
Tubbs drew his first technical from Zetcher after only 2:13 had elapsed. His second one came with 4:58 left in the first half as he said something to Spitler from close quarters. Zetcher also raced over and became involved in the melee around the OU bench area.
Harris' two free throws boosted the margin 50-30 after the second technical foul. TU also led, 52-32, after a follow shot by Brian Rahilly 35 seconds later.
But OU, shooting free throws like they were going out of style, forged back into the game in the waning moments of the half. OU sank 19 of 25 free throws in the first half and 29 and 44 for the game.
Three straight jumpers by Harris put the Hurricane in motion at 14-7 after only 6 1/2 minutes. After the third television timeout with 7:41 to go, Tulsa had connected on 14 of 20 shots, but led by only 33-25.
And then came the spurt, 17-5, that broke open the game. Harris scored the final nine points, the last two after the second technical foul assessed against Tubbs.
Tulsa will continue Valley play Saturday against Creighton in Convention Center Arena, while OU plays host to Northwestern (La.) State in Norman.
