Tulsa Rally Falls Short in 74-67 Setback to Lamar on Friday Afternoon

Friday, November 10

Reynolds Center

12 PM

Tulsa

0-1

Lamar

1-0

Lamar

Tulsa

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Rally Falls Short in 74-67 Setback to Lamar on Friday Afternoon

11/10/2017 3:18:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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TULSA, Okla. — Sterling Taplin scored 18 points and Tulsa nearly erased a second-half deficit with a 12-0 run, but Nick Garth had a game-high 23 points as Lamar held on for a season-opening 74-67 win on Friday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Taplin led three players in double-figures for the Golden Hurricane (0-1), who played in front of a crowd of 7,431, the largest at the Reynolds Center since Feb. 7, 2015 (7,677). Thanks to a generous donation from Gary and Anita Rathburn, more than 4,100 school children from the northeastern Oklahoma area, attended the contest as part of a Blackboards & Backboards Educational Day.

The students participated in several fun and educational activities put on by several local organizations, including the Boy Scouts, EduRec, Tutor Doctor, Memorial Robotics, Fab Lab, Camp Fire Green Country and the Tulsa Fire Department.

"It (the crowd) was great," head coach Frank Haith said. "Hats off to our administration that worked hard to put this together. It means a lot. Our guys appreciated it too. We didn't live up to our part in terms of playing, but it was really good to see. I'm grateful to our administration for putting this together."

DaQuan Jeffries and Martins Igbanu each added a dozen points, while Igbanu pulled down a team-high seven boards. Tulsa shot 45.1-percent for the contest, including 50-percent (11-of-22) in the second half, and scored 34 points in the paint.

Meanwhile, Garth hit five 3-pointers en route to his game-high total for the Cardinals (1-0). Colton Weisbrod finished with a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds and Lamar shot 42.4-percent in the contest.

The Cardinals stretched a nine-point halftime lead to 16, 49-33, with 15:06 on the clock, but the Hurricane trimmed that to single-digits minutes later with an old-fashioned three-point play from Taplin.

Two free throws from Igbanu made it 55-49, only to see Lamar respond with seven straight points and a 62-49 cushion with 8:25 to go.

However, the Hurricane turned up the heat defensively and did not allow another Cardinals field goal for nearly six minutes. During that time, TU rallied with its 12-0 run, beginning with a 3-pointer from freshman Elijah Joiner.

Jeffries scored the next four points with a steal and layup that was followed by two free throws. Corey Henderson Jr. connected on a triple and Taplin found Jeffries for a dunk that brought the crowd to its feet and trimmed the deficit to 62-61 with 5:39 remaining.

Lamar slowed the run with two freebies from Weisbrod, but Taplin answered back with a layup to again make it a one-point game. That would be as close as the Hurricane would get as the Cardinals outscored TU 10-4 over the final four minutes.

TU cut it to 70-67 with 21 seconds left, but Lamar salted the game away at the free-throw line for the 74-67 final margin.

Both teams started slow offensively, but Geno Artison's 3-pointer gave the home squad its first lead and, minutes later, a pair of free throws from Igbanu had TU up 11-10. However, LU went on an 8-0 run to grab the advantage for the rest of the afternoon.

Back-to-back baskets from Igbanu ended the run before Henderson Jr. found Artison down low for a dunk. Joiner's 3-pointer got the Hurricane within a bucket, 22-20, but the Cardinals scored the next seven points to extend their lead and the visitors would take a 37-28 advantage to halftime.

Tulsa will be back in action at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13, when it hosts Oral Roberts at the Reynolds Center in the annual Mayor's Cup game.