Tulsa to Host South Carolina State in Saturday Matinee

GAME #2: TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (1-0) vs SOUTH CAROLINA STATE BULLDOGS (1-0)
Date/Time:	Saturday • Nov. 10 • 3:30 p.m.
Site:	Reynolds Center (8,355) • Tulsa, Okla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 5th year South Carolina State – Murray Garvin (Eastern Kentucky '98), 6th year
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Don King and J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	First Meeting
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa
Tickets:	918-631-GoTU \| Buy Online

TULSA, Okla. — The University of Tulsa men's basketball team will return to the hardwood at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10, when it will host South Carolina State at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Fresh off a 73-56 win over Alcorn State on Tuesday night, the Golden Hurricane (1-0) continue its four-game homestand to start the 2018-19 campaign. The Hurricane used smothering defense in the second half as the Braves shot just 23.8-percent and managed just one field goal over the final eight minutes.

TU used that defense to help fuel its offense, as the Hurricane went on a late 14-2 run and scored 24 points off 19 Braves turnovers in the contest.

Sterling Taplin scored a team-high 16 points, 12 of which came in the second half. The senior drove in for a three-point play before the first-half buzzer and connected on a four-point play in the second half.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs (1-0) defeated Division III Brevard College, 99-51, on Tuesday night in its season opener. Forward Damani Applewhite led the way with 19 points, while Janai Raynor-Powell went 4-for-4 behind the arc on his way to 17 points off the bench.

This will be the first-ever meeting between Tulsa and South Carolina State.

Fast Break Points
• Tulsa is in its 108th season of basketball and fifth season in the American Athletic Conference.
• TU will continue its four-game homestand to start the season when it hosts South Carolina State at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. Saturday's game will mark the first-ever meeting between the Golden Hurricane and Bulldogs.
• Tulsa improved to 68-40 all-time in season openers with a 73-56 win over Alcorn State on Tuesday night at the Reynolds Center. Sterling Taplin scored 12 of his team-high 16 points in the second half as Tulsa pulled away with a 14-2 run. Elijah Joiner posted his fourth career game in double-figures with 11 points off the bench.
• The Hurricane return three starters and eight letterwinners from last year's team, which went 19-12 overall and 12-6 to finish fourth in The American.
• Senior point guard Sterling Taplin is the team's top returning scorer. The East Amherst, N.Y., native averaged 11.8 points, 4.4 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game (all career highs) last season. Taplin also logged career bests with a .462 shooting percentage and 38 3-pointers made.
• Four players made their TU debut in Tuesday's win over Alcorn State as Jeriah Horne, Chris Barnes, Zeke Moore and Simon Falokun each saw the floor and scored against the Braves.
• Tulsa will play 13 games in 2018-19 against opponents that participated in the postseason last year. Seven of those matchups will come at home, including back-to-back contests against Oklahoma State (Dec. 5) and K-State (Dec. 8).
• TU has notched 46 league wins since joining The American, which ranks third behind only Cincinnati (57) and SMU (51) during that span (2014-present).
• Tulsa was picked to finish ninth in The American Preseason Poll. TU has finished better than its preseason prediction in all four seasons under head coach Frank Haith.

The Game
• Tulsa will host South Carolina State at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 10 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
• Fans in the Tulsa area can tune to Big Country 99.5 FM with Don King and former Hurricane player J.R. Rollo on the call. Live audio from the game also can be found on tulsahurricane.com or by using the TuneIn app.

Scouting the Bulldogs
• South Carolina State was picked to finish 10th in the MEAC Preseason Poll. The Bulldogs return eight letterwinners from a year ago, when the team went 10-22 overall and finished 10th in the league with a 6-10 mark.
• Junior forward Damani Applewhite is the team's returning leading scorer after he averaged 12.7 points to go along with 6.7 rebounds per game. SCSU also welcomes six newcomers to the squad this season.
• The Bulldogs opened the 2018-19 season with a 99-51 win over Division III Brevard College on Tuesday night. Applewhite led the way with 19 points, while Janai Raynor-Powell went 4-4 behind the arc on his way to 17 points off the bench.

The Series
• Tulsa and South Carolina State will meet for the first time. The Golden Hurricane owns a 7-0 all-time record against current members of the MEAC.

A Tulsa Win Would ...
• Improve Tulsa's record to 2-0 on the season.
• Improve TU's all-time record against MEAC schools to 8-0 and give the program its first win over SCSU.
• Give Tulsa its 10th victory in its last 11 regular-season games dating back to last season.

Last Time Out
• Sterling Taplin scored a team-high 16 points, including 12 in the second half, as Tulsa opened its 108th season with a 73-56 win over Alcorn State on Tuesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
• The Hurricane held the Braves to just 19 points and 23.8-percent shooting in the second half and TU went on a 14-2 run down the stretch to blow the game open. Alcorn State was limited to just one basket in the final eight minutes.
• Elijah Joiner came off the bench to score 11 points for his fourth career game of at least 10 points.

Haith Enters Fifth Season at TU
• Head coach Frank Haith is in his fifth season at Tulsa, where he has compiled a 78-52 record and led the Golden Hurricane to a pair of postseason appearances during his tenure. Overall, he has an on-court record of 283-181 (.610) in his 15th season.
• Haith's 78 wins on the TU bench rank seventh in program history as he passed former Golden Hurricane coaches Bill Self (74), Tubby Smith (74), Francis Schmidt (73), Chet Benefiel (65) and John Phillips (61) on the charts last season.
• Haith's 19.3 wins per season at TU rank fifth among those who coached more than one season for the Hurricane.

Haith in Exclusive Coaching Company
• Head coach Frank Haith is the one of just two active Division I head coaches to take teams in four of the Power 6 conferences to the NCAA Tournament (Houston's Kelvin Sampson is the other). Haith guided Tulsa (The American) to the Big Dance in 2015, Missouri (SEC) in 2013, Missouri (Big 12) in 2012 and Miami (ACC) in 2008.
• In addition, Haith is one of just 24 active coaches that have taken at least three different programs to the NCAA Tournament.
• Haith and the Hurricane will face two other members of that list this season, when the team faces Bruce Weber and Kansas State (Dec. 8) before two matchups with Sampson and Houston (Jan. 2 and Jan. 27).

The Schedule
• Tulsa will play 13 games in 2018-19 against opponents that participated in the postseason last season. Seven of those matchups will come at home, including back-to-back contests against Oklahoma State (Dec. 5) and Kansas State (Dec. 8).
• TU also will have six games against teams that open the season ranked or receiving votes in the AP Top 25. The first comes against preseason No. 7 Nevada (Nov. 22) on a neutral floor in Las Vegas. The Hurricane will host No. 12 Kansas State, while it will have matchups against UCF (Jan. 19) and Cincinnati (Jan. 10, Jan. 24), who each are receiving votes to start the year.

Taplin Leads the Way
• Senior point guard Sterling Taplin has developed into one of the top point guards in The American and he was named preseason second-team all-conference in a vote by the league's head coaches.
• The East Amherst, N.Y., native is the team's leading returning scorer after he registered a career-best 11.8 ppg last season. He also set career bests with 3.7 rpg and 4.4 apg, which also ranked fourth in The American.
• Taplin's 11.8 ppg last season ranks 11th among returners in The American. In all, he set career highs last season in field goals (127), 3-pointers (38), points (354), rebounds (112) and assists (132).
• In addition, he has climbed to No. 18 on the program's career-assists charts with 280.

Tulsa's Success in The American
• Since joining the American Athletic Conference prior to the 2014-15 season, the Golden Hurricane has posted 46 league wins, which ranks third in the circuit during that time.
• Only Cincinnati (57 wins) and SMU (51 wins) have earned more victories than Tulsa's 46.
• TU has finished better than its preseason prediction in each of Haith's four seasons. Tulsa is the first program in The American history to finish better than its preseason prediction in four consecutive seasons. The Golden Hurricane was picked to finish ninth in the conference prior to the 2018-19 season.

Home Cookin'
• After hosting the first TU men's basketball game on Dec. 29, 1998, the Golden Hurricane is in its 21st season in the Donald W. Reynolds Center this year.
• Tulsa has posted an overall record of 240-72 (.768) in its 20+ seasons, including a 1-0 mark this season.
• The building has seen 42 sellouts and 1,857,256 fans have witnessed Tulsa basketball at the Reynolds Center.
• The Hurricane has won 16 of its last 18 games in the Reynolds Center, including seven straight victories.

Earning Degrees
• Frank Haith has made achievement in the classroom as much of a priority as success on the basketball court over his nearly 15 years as a head coach.
• During head coaching tenures at Miami, Missouri and Tulsa, 54 of the 58 (93.1-percent) seniors that have come through his programs have earned a degree.
• Since arriving at Tulsa, 14 of the program's 15 seniors (93.3-percent) have graduated, including Corey Haith, Corey Henderson Jr., Jaleel Wheeler and Junior Etou from last year's team.
• Additionally, Tulsa has had at least two student-athletes recognized on the American Athletic Conference All-Academic Team in each of Haith's four seasons. Last year, both Alex Foree and Curran Scott made the team, which honors student-athletes with at least a 3.0 GPA.

Dialing Long Distance
• Tulsa lit it up from behind the arc last season and totaled 247 3-pointers, which was the program's highest output since the 2007-08 campaign.
• Along with the most 3-pointers made in the Frank Haith era, TU also posted its best 3-point shooting percentage at .348. That mark was the best for the Hurricane since the 2011-12 team connected at a .384 clip.
• After hitting 188 treys in 2014-15, which was TU's first under Haith, the squad has seen an increase in 3-pointers made each season (2014-15/188; 2015-16/219; 2016-17/234; 2017-18/247).
• The Hurricane will be without its top two 3-point shooters from a season ago after the graduations of Corey Henderson Jr. (73) and Junior Etou (42).

Look Who's Back
• Tulsa returns eight letterwinners, including three starters, from last year's team, which went 19-12 and finished fourth in The American with a 12-6 league mark.
• Returning starters include senior point guard Sterling Taplin (30 starts), junior forward Martins Igbanu (23) and junior guard Lawson Korita (17).
• Other returners include senior guard/forward DaQuan Jeffries, senior forward Alex Foree, junior guard Curran Scott and sophomore guards Elijah Joiner and Darien Jackson.
• In all, Tulsa returns 56.3-percent of its scoring, 56.7-percent of its minutes, 48.9-percent of its rebounding, 69.5-percent of its assists and 59.7-percent of its steals.

New Faces
• Along with the eight returning letterwinners, Tulsa has seven newcomers in addition to Jeriah Horne, who sat out the 2017-18 season after transferring from Nebraska.
• The newcomers eligible to make their debut for the Hurricane this season are Chris Barnes, Zeke Moore, Peter Hewitt, Jeriah Horne, Simon Falokun and walk-on Lindsay Deline Jr. Reggie Jones will sit out the 2018-19 campaign after transferring from Western Michigan and walk-on George Christopoulos will redshirt, as well.
• Of the six eligible to make their debut for TU, three student-athletes have Division I experience (Chris Barnes/UTEP, Jeriah Horne/Nebraska, Zeke Moore/Saint Louis), while Peter Hewitt redshirted at UC Davis in 2016-17.
• TU newcomers totaled 18 points in the team's season-opening win over Alcorn State (Nov. 2), led by seven points from Jeriah Horne.

Exhibition Excellence
• Tulsa improved to 67-2 all-time in exhibition games with a 95-60 win over Division II Northeastern State on Nov. 2 in the Reynolds Center. It also marked the 38th straight exhibition victory for the Golden Hurricane.
• Curran Scott scored 16 points off the bench to lead a balanced scoring effort that saw nine Tulsa players tally at least eight points.
• Newcomer Simon Falokun was the only other player in double-figures with 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting and a 6-for-6 effort from the free-throw line. Falokun also had six rebounds and a pair of blocks.
• The Hurricane jumped out to a 30-5 lead and led by as much as 40 points midway through the second half.

Season Tickets Available Now
• Season tickets for Tulsa's full home schedule are on sale now, including the new Gold E-Ticket option, which guarantees access to all 17 home games at the Reynolds Center.
• A five-game Mini-Plan also is available, which features some of the most exciting home games on the schedule this season (Dec. 5 vs. Oklahoma State; Dec. 8 vs. Kansas State; Jan. 10 vs. Cincinnati; Jan. 30 vs. Memphis; Feb. 20 vs. Wichita State).
• Additionally, discounted group tickets are available to groups of 15 or more and fans also can purchase an All-Sport FlexBook, which allows flexibility in attending games for basketball, football and ticketed Olympic sports.
• Fans can purchase tickets in person at the TU Athletics Ticket Office in the Reynolds Center or by calling 918.631.GoTU (4688).

Up Next
• Tulsa will host California Baptist at 12 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 16 at the Reynolds Center as the Hurricane continue its season-opening four-game homestand. The game will serve as TU's annual Blackboards & Backboards game with more than 3,000 local school children in attendance.

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Tulsa to Host South Carolina State in Saturday Matinee

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Players Mentioned

Chris Barnes

George Christopoulos

Lindsay Deline Jr.

Junior Etou

Simon Falokun

Alex Foree

Corey Haith

Corey Henderson Jr.

Peter Hewitt

Jeriah Horne

Martins Igbanu

Darien Jackson

DaQuan Jeffries

Elijah Joiner

Reggie Jones

Lawson Korita

Curran Scott

Sterling Taplin

Jaleel Wheeler