Tulsa Shocks #9 Wichita State 77-67

Tuesday, November 17

Reynolds Center

7:00 p.m.

Tulsa

2-0

Wichita State

1-1

Wichita State

Tulsa

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Shocks #9 Wichita State 77-67

11/17/2015 11:04:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Don Tomkalski

Box Score | Quotes | Photo Gallery | Highlights | Postgame Press Conference

Tulsa's Shaquille Harrison scored 20 points to lead the Golden Hurricane to a 77-67 victory over the nation's 9^th-ranked Wichita State Shockers Tuesday night in front of 5,670 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

The victory for Tulsa was the first against a ranked opponent since the first round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament against #22 Dayton. It was the first win against a top-10 opponent since the 2000 NCAA Tournament second round when the Hurricane defeated No. 7 Cincinnati.

Harrison was 6-of-10 from the field and 6-of-8 from the free throw line in 32 minutes, while fellow senior Marquel Curtis scored 16 points, junior college transfer Pat Birt added 14 and James Woodard knocked down 13 points for the Hurricane. The Shockers were led by Ron Baker's 23 points, while Anton Grady added 18 points.

"Obviously, this was a great win for us. I thought our guys played with great toughness, execution was outstanding offensively, and I thought our defense was great the whole game. Even there in the first half, VanVleet makes three straight 3-pointers and they get a little momentum there, but I thought, and I told our team at halftime, we were doing what we needed to do defensively," said Tulsa Head Coach Frank Haith. "We just needed to keep playing and stay true to the game plan. We had to win the rebounding war, and I thought we did a great job of that. That was the key for us to win the game."

Wichita State came out of halftime and scored the first four points to take a 35-30 lead, but the Hurricane went on a 7-0 run to take the lead at 37-35 at the 16:39 mark. The score was tied two more times at 37 and 40 before Harrison's three-pointer and layup on back-to-back trips up the court put Tulsa ahead 45-40. The Shockers cut the Hurricane lead to two points five times over the next four minutes.

With Tulsa ahead 53-51 at the 9:37 mark, Birt was fouled on a three-pointer that went down and after making the free throw the Hurricane increased the lead to 57-51 with 9:18 left. "That play was huge, because it was a tight ball game and it kind of gave us a little bit of a cushion. I thought from that point on we were really good at executing offensively," said Haith of Birt's four-point play.

The Shockers got as close as three points on two Shaquille Morris free throws, making the score 58-55, with 7:31 to play. The Hurricane scored the next six points to take a nine-point, 64-55, lead with under 6:30 to play. Over the last five minutes, Tulsa pushed its lead to 12 points three times and held on for the 77-67 victory.

The Hurricane made 9-of-11 free throws in the final five minutes and finished the game connecting on 75-percent of its free throws. Tulsa shot 46-percent from the field and 45.5-percent from three-point range, while holding the Shockers to 36.4-percent and 30.8 from behind the arch.

Tulsa held the lead for most of the first half, building its largest lead to eight points on a D'Andre Wright alley-oop from Rashad Ray to put the Hurricane ahead 30-22 with 2:31 left on the clock.

From that point, the Shockers went on a 9-0 run to close out the first 20 minutes and take a 31-30 lead into intermission. WSU guard Fred VanVleet knocked down three straight three-pointers in the final 1:17 of the first half, including his final one with 0:03 left on the clock.

VanVleet led the Shockers with 11 first-half points, while fellow guard Ron Baker scored nine points. Tulsa, which shot 40.7 percent from the field and 46.2-percent from three-point range, were led in scoring by Marquel Curtis with eight points at the intermission.

The Golden Hurricane will travel to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, for Paradise Jam. TU opens the tournament against Ohio at noon CT Friday.

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