Tulsa Posts Win Over East Carolina 74-66 in Home Finale

Sunday, February 26

3 p.m.

Tulsa

14-14 (8-8AAC)

East Carolina

13-16 (5-11AAC)

East Carolina

Tulsa

Tulsa Posts Win Over East Carolina 74-66 in Home Finale

2/26/2017 6:19:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Don Tomkalski

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Junior Etou led four players in double-figures with a game-high 23 points as Tulsa (14-14, 8-8 AAC) closed out the home season with a 74-66 win over East Carolina (13-16, 5-11 AAC) Sunday afternoon in front of 4,449 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Etou, who scored a career-high 31 points in the earlier meeting against the Pirates, tallied 20 of his 23 points in the second half. He scored only three points in the first half in seven minutes due to foul trouble.

Corey Henderson added 14 points off the bench, while Sterling Taplin scored 13 and Martins Igbanu 10 points for the Hurricane. Taplin was one assist away from a double-double with a career-high nine assists and added six rebounds, and Igbanu led Tulsa with eight rebounds.

Tulsa set a new season-high with 12 three-pointers, breaking the previous high of 11 treys, as the Hurricane shot 54.5-percent from three-point range. Tulsa kept the rebounding battle close, losing 29-28, against a much taller ECU team with 7'1" and 6'10" players in the starting lineup.

The Hurricane bench out-scored ECU's reserved 24-to-8, while the Hurricane also-out-scored the bigger Pirate team 24-to-18 in the paint.

"Really good win. I have a lot of respect for East Carolina – their length, their athleticism, and just the way they have been playing. I thought our guys did some things differently here," said Tulsa Head Coach Frank Haith. "Obviously, we rebounded the ball better and didn't give them as many offensive rebounds. I also thought our transition defense was good, and those were two of the things that hurt us when we played there. In the second half we played as well offensively as we have played all year. I thought we got good shots in the first half, but we just didn't make them. In the second half, when you have your big guys like Martins and Junior who can step out and make threes, it makes your spacing and your offense better."

The Hurricane led by two points at halftime, 29-27, but Caleb White gave East Carolina a one-point lead on a three-pointer 0:32 seconds into the second half. Etou's layup at the 19:02 mark put Tulsa ahead 31-30, a lead the Hurricane never lost for the remainder of the contest.

The Tulsa lead remained within five points over the next seven minutes. Etou's layup at the 10:34 mark put Tulsa ahead by seven points, 54-47, and TK Edogi's traditional three-point play at 9:31 gave Tulsa its first double-digit lead of the game at 57-47.

The Pirates got as close at six points with 4:31 remaining in the game when Deng Riak scored on a jumper, but Henderson knocked down a three-pointer 0:31 later to put Tulsa ahead by nine points. The Hurricane had its biggest lead of the game at 12 points, 72-60, on two Igbanu free throws and held off the Pirates for the eight-point win.

East Carolina jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the game. The Pirates reached a lead of five points three more times in the first seven minutes of the game, while Tulsa's largest five-half lead was also five points.

There were five lead changes in the first 20 minutes as the game was tied twice, first at 19 and then again at 21.

Tulsa's five-point lead came with only 0:48 left when Corey Henderson knocked down Tulsa's fifth three-pointer of the first half, but the Pirates trimmed its deficit to two points at 0:29 on a Kentrell Barkley trey.

Tulsa shot just 33-percent from the field in the first half, but 42-percent from three-point range. ECU shot 36-percent overall and 27-percent from behind the arc through the first 20 minutes. Tulsa's Henderson had a first-half high 11 points, coming on three treys and two free throws

Tulsa goes on the road for two games to close out the regular season. The Hurricane will play league-leading SMU on Thursday night in Dallas at 7:00 p.m. (CT) on CBS Sports Network, then finish at Tulane on Sunday for 3:00 p.m. (CT) tipoff.

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