Tulsa Pulls Away in Overtime for 86-75 Win Over Saint Louis

Tuesday, November 20

Reynolds Center

7:00 pm

Tulsa

3-2

Saint Louis

1-3

OT 1

Saint Louis

Tulsa

Tulsa Pulls Away in Overtime for 86-75 Win Over Saint Louis

11/20/2018 10:03:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Tulsa out-scored Saint Louis 14-3 in overtime to pull away for an 86-75 victory Tuesday night in front of 981 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. Senior Crystal Polk and sophomore Alexis Gaulden led the Hurricane with 26 and 25 points, respectively.

Tulsa led by 11 points at halftime, by eight at the end of three quarters but needed a 5-1 run in the final three minutes of regulation to send the game into overtime. Tulsa shot just 18-percent in the fourth period for seven points, but turned that around in the overtime period by converting 6-of-9 overall and 2-of-3 from behind the arc, for 67 percent from both ranges.

"We took 10 minutes to score seven points in the fourth quarter, and then we scored 14 in five minutes of overtime," Tulsa head coach Matilda Mossman said. "Bottom line is our kids gutted it out. We had an 18-point lead, but then we kept missing shots and Saint Louis did a good job battling back. Our kids did a great job maintaining their composure and got us to overtime."

"We played together. I don't think our kids care who gets the points, it is all about winning right now," Mossman added.

In overtime, Tulsa scored all of its 14 points before Saint Louis scored its first basket, a three-pointer with 0:22 left, but by that time the Hurricane had already sealed the victory. Gaulden and fellow sophomore Morgan Brady had five points each in the extra frame for the win.

The Hurricane ended the game shooting 48-percent from the field and 47-percent from three-point range, while the Billikens were 44-percent overall and 41-percent from behind the arc. Rebecca Lescay added 14 points for the Hurricane, while Ciaja Harbison had 16 points to lead Saint Louis.

Tulsa improved to 3-2 overall, including 3-0 in the city of Tulsa, while Saint Louis fell to 1-3.

Trailing by as many as 18 points in the second half, Saint Louis mounted a second-half comeback that sent the game into overtime.

Tulsa opened the third quarter on an 11-4 run to take an 18-point lead on a Lescay layup at the 6:04 mark. However, the Billikens began to nip away at the Tulsa lead, scoring the next nine points to cut its deficit to 58-49 with just under four minutes left in the third period.

The teams exchanged baskets down the stretch and the Hurricane ended the period with an eight-point lead at 65-57.

Saint Louis held Tulsa to just seven points in the fourth quarter, while scoring 15 of there own and tying the score at 72-72 to end regulation. The Billikens took its first lead since early in the second quarter when Harbison hit two free throws at the 4:57 mark for a 68-67 lead. Thirty seconds later, Harbison then knocked down a three-pointer for a four-point SLU lead, 71-67.

But that's when Polk took over, outscoring the Billikens by herself, 5-1, to end regulation as she went 3-of-4 from the line and hit a jumper at the 1:53 mark to tie the score at 72. In the final 1:50, SLU missed three shots and Tulsa had three turnovers for a 72-72 tie at the end of the 40 minutes.

After trailing by seven points at the end of the first quarter, the Hurricane out-scored the Billikens 31-13 in the second period to take a 47-36 lead into halftime.

The first quarter saw six lead changes before the Billikens ended the period on a 9-2 run over the final three minutes for a 23-16 lead. Kerri McMahon led the visitors with eight points, while Gaulden had seven and Polk six for Tulsa.

Saint Louis had a 20-4 advantage scoring in the paint over the Hurricane in the first quarter, but Tulsa shutdown the Billikens paint scoring in the second 10 minutes, holding a 12-0 edge in the paint for the second quarter.

Tulsa's second quarter scoring barrage began right out of the gates, as the Hurricane knotted the score at 23 with almost two minutes gone. Saint Louis scored the next five points and held onto the lead before Maddie Bittle's 3-pointers at the 4:57 mark put Tulsa ahead 32-30. Saint Louis answered with a trey of its own to retake the lead at 33-32.

From there, Tulsa outscored the Billikens in the final 4:23 by a count of 15-3 behind two three-pointers by Gaulden and one by Bittle. The Hurricane shot an astounding 71-percent from the field in the second quarter, making 12-of-17 field goals, while hitting 67-percent of its three's on 4-of-6.

For the half, Tulsa shot 61-percent from the field and 56-percent from 3-point range, while the Billikens also had a good shooting half at 52-percent from the field, but made only 2-of-6 treys, as compared to Tulsa's 5-of-9.

Gaulden had 17 first-half points, 10 coming in the second quarter, followed by 13 points from Polk and seven from Lescay.

Tulsa goes on the road to face Stephen F. Austin on Saturday with a 2:00 p.m. tipoff. The Hurricane returns to the Reynolds Center next Wednesday, Nov. 28 against Abilene Christian in a 7 p.m. game.