Tulsa Drops 73-64 Decision to Houston

Saturday, February 11

5 p.m.

Tulsa

Houston

Tulsa Drops 73-64 Decision to Houston

2/11/2017 8:14:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Don Tomkalski

Final Stats in PDF l Final Stats in HTML l Season Stats in PDF l Post Game Quotes l Game Highlights l Post Game Press Conference

Tulsa (12-12, 6-6 The American) couldn't overcome a double-digit deficit on Saturday and fell 73-64 to the Houston Cougars (18-7, 9-4 The American) in American Athletic Conference action in front of 4,229 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Houston's Rob Gray scored a game-high 28 points and Damyeon Dotson added 24 to pace the Cougars, while Corey Henderson led the Hurricane with 19 points, as he connected on 5-of-7 three pointers. Martin's Igbanu added 10 points for Tulsa, all coming in the first half.

The Cougars had a halftime lead of 36-25, and the closest the Hurricane could get in the second half was six points three times, but Houston would manage to hold-off a Tulsa comeback bid each time.

Will Magnay's layup at the 14:22 mark made the score 43-37, and two TK Edogi free throws cut an eight-point Houston lead to six with 12:25 to play. Houston stretched its lead to 13 points, 59-46, in the next three minutes, but Tulsa again sliced the lead to six points, 65-59, on a Pat Birt trey with 4:51 to play.

Houston went on an 8-1 run to move its lead back to 13 points with 1:29 on the game clock.

For the game, the Cougars shot 43-percent from the field and 44-percent from three-point range, while Tulsa managed to hit 40-percent of its shot from the field and behind the arc. Houston had 18 more field goals attempt than the Hurricane and made four more three-pointers.

Once again, the Tulsa bench out-scored the opponent 24-13, as all but five of Tulsa's bench points came from Henderson.

"I thought Houston played really well tonight. I thought that our guys, when we had a chance there in the second half to win the game, we just couldn't," said Tulsa Head Coach Frank Haith. "We weren't a tough basketball team and we have got to get tougher between now and Tuesday."

Tulsa scored the game's first points within the first 12 seconds on a Jaleel Wheeler layup, then Houston took a 9-4 lead before Henderson's three-point basket at the 14:06 mark of the first half tied the score at nine. The Cougars rattled off the next 10 points to take a 19-9 lead with 11:13 left on the clock and never trailed again. The Hurricane cut the Cougars lead to one point, 23-22, with 5:22 remaining in the first half on Henderson's third three-pointer of the half.

Houston closed out the first half on a 13-3 run over the final five minutes, as an Igbanu traditional three-point play was Tulsa's only points in the final stretch.

Igbanu and Henderson had all but six of Tulsa's 25 first-half points. Igbanu tied his season-high in the first 20 minutes with 10 points with six coming off of free throws, while Henderson knocked down three first-half treys for a total of nine points. Gray had a high of 15 first-half points, while Dotson added 12 points for the Cougars.

In the first half, Houston out-shot Tulsa from the field, 42.4 to 30.8 percent, while the Cougars also connected on 41.7-percent of their treys. The Cougars had 13 points off of nine Tulsa turnovers in the first half, while the visitors had only two turnovers.

Tulsa goes on the road for two games next week. The Hurricane plays UCF in Orlando, Fla., this Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m. (CT) on ESPNews, and travels to face league-leading Cincinnati for an 11:00 a.m. game on Saturday, Feb. 18.

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