Tulsa
St. Gregory's
Golden Hurricane Cruise Past St. Gregory's, 88-64
11/15/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2006
Box Score
TULSA, Okla. - Tulsa opened the regular season with an 88-64 victory over St. Gregory's on Wednesday night behind 23 points from freshman Ben Uzoh and 22 points from senior Darold Crow in front of 5,457 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
The victory was the first home opening win for the Hurricane in three years. The last coming in the 2003-04 campaign. The 23 points by Uzoh was the most for a Tulsa freshman in their first collegiate game since former TU All-American Shea Seals had 33 points against Houston Baptist on November 27, 1993.
Uzoh missed a double-double in his opening collegiate game with nine rebounds. Walls ended the game with 13 points, while freshman guard Mark Hill didn't score but dished out five assists and had four steals for the Hurricane.
Uzoh and Crow scored Tulsa's final 29 points of the game and 35 of Tulsa's 43 second-half points. Only Charles Ramsdell, Calvin Walls and Rod Earls were the other Hurricane players to score a second-half basket.
After Walls gave the Hurricane a 59-45 lead with 14:56 left in the second half, it then became the Crow and Uzoh show. Crow scored 12 consecutive points for Tulsa in a span of 4:10 in the second half, pushing Tulsa's lead of 59-47 to 71-54. Uzoh took over from there, scoring the next 13 points for the Golden Hurricane. Crow ended the scoring with four more points giving Tulsa its biggest lead of the game at 88-64 with 0:09 left in the game.
Tulsa out-scored St. Gregory's by 12 points in each half for its 24-point victory. Tulsa shot 50 percent and outrebounded the smaller Cavaliers 38-28.
Uzoh made just 1-of-6 field goals in the first half, but 7-of-8 in the second. He hit consecutive 3-pointers, dunked on a fast break then slid in the lane for a 4-footer and added another trey that pushed the lead to 84-60.
St. Gregory's came out in the first five minutes of the second half and knocked down three treys, but the Hurricane nearly scored every trip down the floor, holding onto a 59-47 lead at the first media timeout.
The Hurricane had a 12-point halftime lead, 45-33, as 10 Tulsa players scored before halftime led by junior transfer Calvin Walls' nine points
In the first half, Tulsa built a 23-12 lead at the 10:45 mark of the first half, its biggest first-half lead until the Hurricane went up by 13, 38-35, at the 4:21 mark. Tulsa kept a double-digit lead for the remainder of the first half.
Both teams shot nearly identical in the first half from the field, three-point range and free throw line, but Tulsa made it to the charity stripe 13 times, connecting on 12 freebies, while St. Gregory's was 4-of-4.
After St. Gregory's scored the first three points of the second half, Tulsa Tulsa built a 13-point lead, 38-25, at the four-minute media timeout
Patrick Jones, from Tulsa's Bishop Kelley High School, led St. Gregory's with 21 points.
Tulsa returns to the Reynolds Center on Saturday to host the Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 pm.
