Tulsa-UCF Battle in Orlando on Saturday
1/29/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 29, 2010
Orlando, Fla. - Tulsa and UCF will meet for the second time this season on Saturday afternoon, as the Golden Hurricane visit the Knights for a 5 pm local time tip off (4 pm central time) at UCF Arena.
Tulsa will look to rebound from a 10-point loss at UAB on Tuesday night in a battle of the two remaining undefeated teams in Conference USA, while UCF is coming off of 65-43 loss at SMU. Tulsa has a 16-4 overall record and a 5-1 Conference USA mark, tied with Memphis and UTEP for second place in C-USA standings. UCF comes into the game with an overall 10-10 record and 2-4 league mark.
Tulsa leads the overall series 6-4 after a 90-70 win in Tulsa two weeks ago, but in Orlando, UCF leads the series 4-0. Three of those four meetings have gone down to the wire, as two were decided by one and two points, and a third went to triple overtime, a six-point UCF win.
In the earlier game, junior Justin Hurtt scored a career-best 22 points, while 7'0" senior Jerome Jordan added a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds, and fellow senior Ben Uzoh added 16 points.
Uzoh leads the Hurricane in scoring with a 16.4 average and in assists at 4.1 per game, while Jordan averages 14.6 points and is the team-leader in rebounds at 8.3 and blocks with 2.8 per game. Hurtt is next in scoring for Tulsa with a 14.1 average.
UCF's A.J. Rompza tallied 19 points in 21 minutes against the Hurricane in the first meeting. A.J. Tyler and Isaac Sosa lead the Knights in scoring with averages of 10.3 and 10.0 points, respectively.
The Tulsa-UCF game will be televised in Tulsa on Cox-Channel 3 and can be heard on KRMG Radio 740 AM/FM 102.3.
Tulsa returns home to face one of C-USA's most surprising teams and one of the league leaders in the Marshall Thundering Herd on Wednesday night at 7 pm. The Herd has suffered two last second losses against 6-0 UAB and 5-1 Memphis in its' last two contests.
Tickets for Wednesday night's marquee matchup featuring two seven-footers, Tulsa's Jerome Jordan and the nation's shot-blocking leader Hassan Whiteside of Marshall, can be purchased for as low as $10. Order tickets online at tulsahurricane.com or by calling 918.631.GoTU (4688).
