Tulsa Erases 14-Point Second-Half Deficit for 70-68 Win over Illinois State

Wednesday, December 7

7 p.m.

Tulsa

4-3

Illinois State

4-3

Illinois State

Tulsa

Tulsa Erases 14-Point Second-Half Deficit for 70-68 Win over Illinois State

12/7/2016 10:34:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Stephanie Hall

Final Stats in PDF l Final Stats in HTML l Season Stats in PDF l Post-Game Quotes

Sterling Taplin's layup with 0:11 on the clock snapped a 67-67 tie as Tulsa (4-3) completed a 14-point second-half comeback for a 70-68 victory over the Illinois State Redbirds (4-3) Wednesday night in front of 3,478 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Taplin ended with 15 points, as did Junior Etou, while freshman Will Magnay had his first career double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Taplin also added five assists and two steals in 29 minutes of play. Illinois State's Paris Lee had game-highs of 18 points and six assists.

For the game, Tulsa connected of 45.5 percent of its field goals, while the Redbirds shot 39-percent from the field. The Hurricane outscored Illinois State in the paint by a count of 36 to 18, and had the advantage in bench scoring of 20-6.

"Obviously this was a really, really intense game. I thought our guys fought really hard to get ourselves back in the game. I'm very proud of them and this is a heck of a win," said Tulsa Head Coach Frank Haith. "We beat a really good Illinois State team. I'm really proud of how we fought. Sterling (Taplin) and Will (Magnay) made big plays down the stretch and this is something we can build on."

It looked dismal for the Hurricane early in the second half when a Deontae Hawkins three-pointer gave Illinois State a 14-point lead, 48-34, with just over 17 minutes to play. Tulsa chipped away and trimmed its deficit to eight points on a Lawson Korita three-pointer at the 12:09 mark.

Taplin's three-pointer at the 10:30 mark cut the Redbirds lead to five points, 55-50. Illinois State pushed the lead back to eight points three times in the next three minutes, including getting its last eight-point margin at 65-57 with 6:42 on the clock. Tulsa again chipped away at the Redbird lead, as Will Magnay's layup on a Korita assist made the score 65-62 with 4:09 left in the game.

Magnay scored again on a dunk off a Jaleel Wheeler assist, thus cutting the Illinois State lead to one point at 65-64 with just under three minutes remaining on the game clock. Etou's layup and free throw 28 seconds later put the Hurricane ahead, 67-65, for the first time since the 9:28 mark of the first half.

McIntosh's layup at the 2:15 mark knotted the score at 67 for the Redbirds, and the game remained that way until Taplin's layup at the 0:11 mark gave the Hurricane a two point lead. Corey Henderson hit one of two free throws to put Tulsa ahead 70-67 after a technical foul on the Illinois State bench.

After a double-lane violation with 0:03 left in the game put the ball in the Redbird's possession, a long-three point attempt by Hawkins missed.

After shooting under 40-percent from the field in the first half, the Hurricane connected on 52-percent in the second half. Tulsa out-scored Illinois State 34-18 in the final 14:22 after getting down by 14 points.

Tulsa opened the game with a 6-0 run and held its biggest lead of the game at 12-4 at the 14:29 mark. Over the next four minutes the Redbird tied the score at 17-17 and took its first lead at 20-19 on a Lee three-pointer with 8:09 left in the first half. The Hurricane fell behind by five points, 29-24, just under four minutes but scored the next five points to tie the score at 29-29 on a Pat Birt three-pointer.

Etou's three pointer with 0:30 left before the half brought Tulsa to within one point before Lee put the Redbirds ahead by four, 36-32, with 0:02 left on the clock.

In the first half, Etou had nine points to lead all scorers, followed by Taplin's six points. Illinois State's Lee and McIntosh had eight first-half points. The Redbird connected on six treys, while Tulsa could manage only 3-of-14 from behind the arc.

Tulsa continues its three-game homestand on Saturday against state rival Oklahoma State with a 4:00 p.m. tipoff. Tulsa hosts Texas State a week later on Saturday, Dec. 17 with 1 7:00 p.m. tip time.

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