Tulsa Plays San Diego State Friday in Semifinals of Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic

TULSA BASKETBALL

GAME #11 ... TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (6-4) vs. SAN DIEGO STATE AZTECS (6-4) 2016 HAWAIIAN AIRLINES DIAMOND HEAD CLASSIC • SEMIFINAL GAME
Date/Time:	Friday • December 23, 2016 • 3:30 p.m. (CT)/11:30 a.m. (HT)
Site:	Stan Sheriff Center (10,300) • Honolulu, Hawaii
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 3rd year San Diego State – Steve Fisher (Illinois State '67), 18th year
TV:	ESPN2 (Kanoa Leahey and Corey Alexander)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Tulsa leads 6-1
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa I San Diego State

THE GAME & HAWAII . . .
•    The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (6-4) and the San Diego State Aztecs (6-4) will play in one of the semifinal games of the eight-team Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on Friday, Dec. 23.
•    This is the 7th in-season tournament in Hawaii that Tulsa has played in school history, as the Hurricane now has a 13-5 record following Thursday's 74-51 win over Stephen F. Austin.
•    San Diego State captured a 66-51 win over Southern Miss to advance to the semifinals.
•    Among the previous 6 Hawaiian tournaments, Tulsa played the first 4 in Honolulu (1965, 1974, 1988, 1992) and the last 2 on the northshore (1998, 2001).
•    Tulsa won the 1965 Rainbow Classic and the 2001 Yahoo Invitational with 3-0 records.

THE SERIES . . .
•    Tulsa has a 6-1 record against San Diego State, including a 4-1 record at home, 1-0 in San Diego and 1-0 on a neutral site.
•    Tulsa has won the last five meetings with the last game being played on Feb. 19, 1998, as Tulsa grabbed a 65-60 win in San Diego, while both schools were members of the Western Athletic Conference.
•    The Hurricane has a 14.5 win margin in the series against the Aztecs.

LAST TIME OUT . . .
•   Pat Birt scored a season-high 20 points to lead Tulsa to its biggest win of the season, a 23-point (74-51) victory over Stephen F. Austin.
•   Tulsa broke a 12-12 tie at the 12:35 mark of the first half, and after going ahead 14-12 never trailed again.
•   The Hurricane took a 40-25 halftime lead, as Tulsa made 7-of-12 first-half 3-pointers.
•   After SFA scored the first 7 points of the 2nd half, Tulsa's Joseph Battle's traditional 3-point play snapped a Tulsa drought that lasted 3:13 and gave the Hurricane a 43-32 lead at the 16:47 mark.
•   Tulsa didn't relinquish its double-digit lead after taking that 11-point lead.
•    The Tulsa bench out-scored the SFA's bench 42-15.

IN THE EARLY GOING . . .
•    Ten players have made their Tulsa debuts this season . . . they have accounted for 68.0 percent of Tulsa's total points, scoring 479 of Tulsa's 704 points thru 10 games.
•    Tulsa has out-rebounded 6 of its first 10 opponents this season, winning 5 of those games.
•    After allowing 80+ points in the first two games (82.0 ppg), both losses, Tulsa held its next three opponents to 65.7 points per game for a difference of 16.3 points.
•    Tulsa has used 6 different starting lineups through 9 games this year.

FG PERCENTAGE ON UPWARD TREND . . .
•    In Tulsa's first two games, the Hurricane combined to shoot just 37-percent from the field (41-of-112).
•    Since then, Tulsa has connected on .486 percent from the field (206-of-424) in the last 8 games.
•    Tulsa has shot over 50-percent in 4 of its last 8 games –– New Orleans (.544), Little Rock (.500), Texas State (.511) and Stephen F. Austin (.500).
•    Tulsa's season field goal percentage is now up to .456 overall.

BIRT BREAKS OUT . . .
•    Senior Pat Birt scored a season-high 20 points, shooting 7-of-11 from the field (.636) and 6-of-7 from 3-point range (.857), in Tulsa's 74-51 win over Stephen F. Austin.
•    He entered the SFA game shooting just 33-percent from the field and 28-percent from 3-point range . . . with that performance vs. SFA, his percentages rose to 37-percent from the field and 36-percent from 3-point range.
•    Birt has come off the bench in the last 3 games, and has shot .692 percent from 3-point range in those 3 games . . . while in his 7 starting assignments, Birt shot just 25-percent from 3-poiont range (10-of-40).

SINCE HIS ARRIVAL . . .
•   Junior College transfer Jaleel Wheeler missed the first two games for the Hurricane, but since he has been on the floor, has averaged a team-leading 13.3 points, ranks second in rebounding at 5.8 and assists at 3.1 in 8 games and 32.5 minutes of playing time per game.
•   Wheeler has scored in double-digits in all but one game this year, including scoring at least 15 points in 5 of 8 games.
•   He had a season-best 17 points at Little Rock, and a personal-best 9 rebounds at Oral Roberts.
•   He did not reach double-figures vs. Illinois State, but had 9 rebounds and 3 assists to go along with 6 points in 34 minutes.

THE FROSH . . .
•   Among Tulsa's 10 new faces in the lineup this year, three freshmen have averaged double-digit minutes through the first 10 games.
•   Will Magnay leads the way with 18.5, Lawson Korita averages 15.7 and Martins Igbanu averages 11.2 minutes.
•   Tulsa's entire 5-member freshman class is averaging a combined 19.5 points and 12.0 rebounds per game.
•    Tulsa's freshman class has combined for seven double-digit scoring games, including four games for Magnay and one each for Korita, Igbanu and Travis Atson.

Tulsa Plays San Diego State Friday in Semifinals of Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic

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Players Mentioned

Travis Atson

Joseph Battle

Pat Birt

Martins Igbanu

Lawson Korita

Will Magnay

Jaleel Wheeler