Tulsa Claims Mayor’s Cup with 69-59 Win Over ORU

Saturday, December 22

Mabee Center

7 PM

Tulsa

10-3

Oral Roberts

4-11

Tulsa

Oral Roberts

Photo by: Bill Powell

Tulsa Claims Mayor’s Cup with 69-59 Win Over ORU

12/22/2018 9:48:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BOX SCORE PDF | SEASON STATS

TULSA, Okla. –– DaQuan Jeffries and Martins Igbanu each scored 16 points to lead Tulsa (10-3) to a 69-59 win over crosstown rival Oral Roberts (4-11) in the Mayor's Cup Saturday night in front of 4,102 fans at ORU's Mabee Center.

The 10^th win of the season gave the Hurricane its most non-league wins since the 2009-10 campaign. Tulsa won its 5^th straight overall and improved to 35-19 in the series against Oral Roberts.

It was three-point shooting that was a major factor in the game as ORU scored 36 of their 59 points from behind the arc. Although Tulsa made just 6-of-20 from three-point range for the game, two big three's in the final 2:04 sealed the victory for the Hurricane. It was an off-balance trey from Elijah Joiner and one from Jeffries that put Tulsa ahead by 13 points with under 2 minutes left.

Trailing by 5 at halftime, the Hurricane knotted the score at 33 with 1:58 gone off the clock, but another three-pointer put the Golden Eagles back ahead. The home team increased that lead to its largest lead of 8 points at 41-33 and again at 43-35, before Tulsa cut its deficit to 45-44 at the 8:44 mark on two Jeffries free throws.

Tulsa took back the lead 46-45 on an Igbanu put-back with 7:58 left on the game clock. ORU retook the lead 50-49 before Jeffries knocked down his second three-pointer to put the Hurricane ahead for good at 52-50.

Igbanu scored 5 straight points on a free throw and two close-in baskets to increase Tulsa's lead to 57-50 at the 2:47 mark. After that, Joiner hit his off-balance three-pointer as time was expiring on the shot clock to put Tulsa ahead 60-50 at 2:04, and the next time down the court it was Jeffries' trey that gave Tulsa its largest lead at 13 points.

But, ORU's three-point shooting kept the Golden Eagles in the game, cutting the Hurricane lead to just 8 points at 64-56 with 0:40 left on the clock, and again to 6 points at 65-59 with 0:37 remaining. Two free throws each by Sterling Taplin and Curran Scott put Tulsa back ahead by double digits for the final 10-point margin.

Tulsa jumped out to a 10-6 lead in the first 5 minutes of the contest, scoring 8 points in the paint and 6 points off of 5 ORU turnovers. Five minutes went by and only 2 points were scored between the two teams, as it was 12-6 at the 11:33 timeout.

During the first 11 minutes, Tulsa was 5-of-11 from the field, while holding the Golden Eagles to 2-of-11. ORU's two field goals were from beyond the arc. The Golden Eagles scored its first points in nearly 7 minutes on two Kevin Obanor free throws to make the score 14-8 at the 9:25 mark.

ORU hit its first field goal in 10 minutes and 19 seconds, the first of 3 straight treys for the Eagles, cutting Tulsa's lead to one point at 18-17. ORU took its first lead of the game, 19-18, at the 3:30 mark, before Jeffries' three-pointer snapped Tulsa's 0-for-7 string from behind the arc to put Tulsa back ahead 21-19.

The Golden Eagles three-point barrage continued through the first half giving the home team a 31-26 lead at intermission. ORU scored 23 of its 31 points in the final 6:07 of the first half, knocking in 6-of-6 three-pointers in that time span and finishing the first 20 minutes 8-of-19 from behind the arc.

Igbanu had 9 first-half points to lead the Hurricane, while ORU's DeShang Weaver had a game-high 10 points.

In the first half, Tulsa out-scored ORU in the paint 16-2, while ORU had a 24-3 advantage from 3-point range.

ORU was shooting 12-percent through the first 8 minutes of the game and ended the opening period at 35.7 percent, as only two of ORU's 10 field goals were not three-pointers. The Hurricane shot 37.5 percent from the field and just 12-percent (1-of-8) from three-point range in the first 20 minutes.

Tulsa will be off until beginning American Athletic Conference play on the road, January 2, against the nation's 21^st-ranked Houston Cougars (11-0).