Tulsa Basketball Plays UCF Tonight

TULSA BASKETBALL

Tulsa on the Road Tonight in Orlando Against UCF

GAME PREVIEW, CLICK HERE

GAME #25 ... TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (12-12, 6-6 AAC) vs. UCF KNIGHTS (15-10, 6-7 AAC)
Date/Time:	Tuesday • February 14, 2017 • 7:00 p.m. (ET)/6:00 p.m. (CT)
Site:	CFE Arena (10,000) • Orlando, Fla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 3rd year UCF – Johnny Dawkins (Duke '86) 1st year
TV:	ESPNews (Allen Bestwick and Mark Wise)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	Tulsa leads 27-23
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa I UCF

THE GAME . . .
•   The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (12-12, 6-6 AAC) dropped its fourth straight game on Saturday with a home loss against Houston, while UCF (15-10, 6-7 AAC) fell at home to UConn, 66-63.
•   Tulsa won the earlier meeting between the two teams this year with a 77-66 win at home.

THE SERIES . . .
•   This is the 19th meeting between Tulsa and UCF.
•   Tulsa leads the series 12-6 and has won the last four games.
•   The Hurricane has a 3-6 record in Orlando and has a 9-0 record at home.
•   Tulsa has a 15.1 win margin against UCF in its 12 wins over UCF.
•   UCF has a 4.7 winning margin in its six home victories, while Tulsa has won its three road games in the series by 3.0 points.
*   The Hurricane won both games a year ago, winning at home, 75-60, and on the road, 75-67.

TULSA IN THE AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE . . .
•   Tulsa is in its third season as a member of the American Athletic Conference, after finishing its first year in second-place and placing in a tie for third-place a year ago.
•   Tulsa has an overall 32-16 record in its third season of American play, which in the last three years is the third best league mark behind SMU (39-9) and Cincinnati (36-11).
•   Tulsa had league records of 14-4 in 2014-15 and 12-6 in 2015-16.
•   In the preseason coaches poll, Tulsa was picked to finish 9th in the league . . . this year, Tulsa has defeated teams picked above them –– UConn (2nd), Memphis (5th), Temple (6th) and UCF (8th).

GOING ON THE ROAD IN THE AAC . . .
•   In its third year as a member of the American Athletic Conference, the Hurricane has posted a 13-10 record in league road games.
•   Tulsa has a 2-3 road record this year, including wins at Temple (70-68) and USF (79-67), while losing its first two road games by three points each, including at Houston (64-61) and at East Carolina (69-66), then suffering a 66-44 loss at Memphis.
•   The Hurricane posted a 7-2 road record in 2014-15 and a 4-5 mark in 2015-16.
•   Tulsa has an 8.2 win margin in its 13 road victories in the league since the 2014-15 season.

COACH HAITH GETS 50th WIN AT TULSA . . .
•   While capturing its American Athletic Conference-opening win over UConn this year, it was also the 50th win for Frank Haith as the Tulsa head coach.
•   Haith now has a 55-35 record in his third season as the Hurricane head coach.
•   In his first two years, Haith led Tulsa to over 20 wins both years, including 23 in his first year and 20 victories a year ago.
•   Haith averaged 21.5 wins in his first two years, while Tulsa made the NIT in 2014 and NCAAs in 2015.

QUICK SHOTS . . .
• Tulsa is playing its 106th season of basketball.
• Tulsa features only three players on its roster that appeared in a game at TU prior to this season – Pat Birt, TK Edogi and Sterling Taplin.
•   Tulsa graduated 9 seniors after last year's 20-12 season and NCAA tournament appearance, including losing 81-percent of its scoring and 78-percent of its rebounding.
• Tulsa has 10 newcomers to its roster, including two juniors, three sophomores and five freshmen.
•   Tulsa has used 8 different starting lineups through 24 games this year.
• Ten players have made their Tulsa debuts this season . . . they have accounted for 66.1 percent of Tulsa's total points, scoring 1,074 of Tulsa's 1,623 points thru 24 games.
• Tulsa has out-rebounded 13 of its 24 opponents this season, winning 8 of those games . . . among those 13 games, Tulsa has had 7 double-digit rebounding margins, including a high of 21 more than ORU.
•   After allowing its first two opponents this season to average 82.0 points, both losses, Tulsa has held its next 22 opponents to a 66.3 scoring average.

THE LAST MEETING: Tulsa vs. UCF . . .
• Tulsa overcame a six-point deficit in the final seven minutes and went on for a 77-66 win over the UCF Knights in the first meeting on Jan. 28.
•   In the final 6:28, Tulsa overcame a 57-51 deficit and out-scored the Knights 26-9 for the 11-point victory. In that time span, the Hurricane connected on 18-of-19 free throws, while receiving two critical traditional three-point plays.
•   TK Edogi gave Tulsa a six-point lead on a dunk and free throw with 2:11 left in the game, while Jaleel Wheeler's layup and free throw put Tulsa ahead 69-62 with 1:04 remaining on the clock.
•   From that point, a dunk off of a steal by Edogi and six consecutive free throws by Birt and the Hurricane was able to secure their eighth home win of the season.
•   Tulsa's 77 points was the most scored against the Knights this year, bettering the previous high of 74 points.
•   Senior Pat Birt led four double-figure scorers with 19 points to pace the Hurricane, followed by Corey Henderson's 14, Junior Etou's 12 and TK Edogi's 10 points. Tulsa scored 23 points off of 16 UCF turnovers and the Hurricane bench tied for its most scoring production of the season with a 42-to-15 edge over the Knights.

LOOKING AT NUMBERS . . .
•   Tulsa held the then 14th-ranked Cincinnati to 21.5 points below its season scoring average.
•   The Hurricane also shot 40.5 percent from the field against Cincinnati, the nation's second-ranked field goal defensive team.
•   Tulsa's 77 points in its win over UCF in the first game this year was the most points allowed this season by UCF, bettering the previous high of 74.
•   Tulsa shot 42.6% against a UCF team that came into the contest leading the nation for FG% defense, allowing opponents to just 34.8%.
•   Junior TK Edogi is shooting .661 from the field on 59 attempts, while shooting .647 from the free throw line on 34 attempts.
•   Edogi has made 18 of his last 25 free throws for a .720 percentage.
•   Tulsa is shooting 72.8-percent from the free throw line at home and .731 on the road.
•   The Hurricane has a .441 field goal percentage at home, while hitting .406 on the road.
•   Sterling Taplin has a 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio overall this year, and has a 2.1 ratio in home games.
•   Tulsa leads the American Athletic Conference in league games with a free throw percentage of .781, and all games as well at 72.9 percent.
•   The last time Tulsa lost four straight games came in the 2011-12 season when the Hurricane lost Games #7,8, 9, 10 of the season.

LAST TIME OUT . . .
•   Tulsa couldn't overcome a double-digit deficit on Saturday and fell 73-64 to the Houston Cougars.
•   Corey Henderson led the Hurricane with 19 points, as he connected on 5-of-7 three pointers. Martins Igbanu added 10 points for Tulsa, all coming in the first half.
•   Igbanu and Henderson had all but six of Tulsa's 25 first-half points.
•   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.
•   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.

JUNIOR LEADING HURRICANE . . .
•   Junior Etou, a junior who sat out last year after transferring from Rutgers, has been a key component to the Tulsa team.
•   Etou averages 12.4 points and 7.0 rebounds to rank first on the team in both categories.
•   Etou scored a new career-high with 31 points and added 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season at East Carolina on Jan. 25.
•   His previous career-high was 23 points against Memphis, while he also turned in a career-best 13 rebounds in that game.
•   His earlier career-high was 22 points, while knocking down 13-of-14 free throws, against Illinois State at the Diamond Head Classic.
•   Etou has raised his free throw percentage to 79.5 percent . . . after his 13-of-14 performance against Illinois State, his free throw percentage improved from .667 to his current percentage.
•   In the last 14 games, Etou has connected on 88.5 percent of his free throws (69-of-78).
•   He has scored in double-figures in 14 games and has 4 double-doubles.
•   Against Illinois State in the first meeting, Etou had 15 points, including a layup at 2:29 that gave Tulsa its first second-half lead, and added 3 rebounds.
•   Against OSU, Etou's layup with 0:40 on the clock tied the game at 67-67.
•   Etou began the year with a 20-point, 10-rebound performance against Jacksonville State.

Tulsa Basketball Plays UCF Tonight

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Pat Birt

TK Edogi

Junior Etou

Martins Igbanu

Sterling Taplin

Jaleel Wheeler

Tulsa Basketball Plays UCF Tonight

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Pat Birt

TK Edogi

Junior Etou

Martins Igbanu

Sterling Taplin

Jaleel Wheeler

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