Tulsa Rolls to 2-0 with 74-52 Win Over South Carolina State

Saturday, November 10

Reynolds Center

3:30 PM

Tulsa

2-0

South Carolina State

1-1

South Carolina State

Tulsa

Photo by: Bill Powell

Tulsa Rolls to 2-0 with 74-52 Win Over South Carolina State

11/10/2018 6:23:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Box Score (.pdf) | Postgame Press Conference

TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa shot 52-percent and DaQuan Jeffries neared a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds as the Golden Hurricane improved to 2-0 with a 74-52 victory over South Carolina State on Saturday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Jeffries went 8-of-11 from the floor and hit a pair of 3-pointers to lead TU, which also got 11 points off the bench from Curran Scott. The Hurricane racked up 19 assists, including a career-high 10 helpers from Sterling Taplin.

In addition, Elijah Joiner (9 points), Martins Igbanu (8 points) and Jeriah Horne (8 points) neared double-figures in another balanced offensive attack.

Meanwhile, Damani Applewhite led all scorers with 21 points for the Bulldogs (1-1), but the team was held to just 31-percent shooting. Jahmari Etienne scored 14 points off the bench before leaving early in the second half with an injury.

"I thought our guys were really good defensively all game," head coach Frank Haith said. "Offensively, we shared the ball with 19 assists, 10 of them by Tap, and we shot the ball well. We didn't settle for contested 3s early in the clock even though they were playing a variety of defenses and I thought our guys showed poise in the second half with really good execution."

Neither team could get much separation in the opening minutes of the contest, but a triple from Scott with seven minutes left in the half ignited a 7-0 run that gave the home squad its first double-digit lead at 24-14. Taplin and Joiner also hit triples in the final 5:30 of the half to give the Hurricane a 36-25 advantage at intermission.

TU clamped down defensively in the second half and turned those stops into points on the other end as the home squad led by at least a dozen points throughout the final 20 minutes.

Jeffries went on a tear midway through the half as he scored 14 straight points with the help of an assist from a teammate on all six of his baskets. The run pushed the Tulsa lead out to 62-40 with nine minutes left.

From there, the Bulldogs would not get any closer than 16 points and TU had its largest lead, 74-49, on Scott's 3-pointer with 92 seconds left on the way to the 74-52 final.

Tulsa will return to the court at noon on Friday, Nov. 16, when it will host California Baptist (1-0) as part of TU's second annual Blackboards & Backboards game.

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