Tulsa Uses Early Scoring Barrage En route to 66-45 Win Over UTEP

Saturday, December 29

Reynolds Center

2:00 pm

Tulsa

6-7

UTEP

3-10

UTEPW

Tulsa

Tulsa Uses Early Scoring Barrage En route to 66-45 Win Over UTEP

12/29/2018 4:54:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Final Stats in PDF
Final Stats in HTML
Season Stats in PDF

Tulsa jumped out to a 20-point lead in the first quarter and cruised to a 66-45 victory over UTEP Saturday afternoon in the final non-conference game for the Golden Hurricane.

Tulsa snapped a 15-game losing streak against their former league foe from the two schools' membership in Conference USA. Tulsa's last win against UTEP came in the 2005-06 season. Tulsa heads into American Athletic Conference action with a 6-7 record, while the Miners fell to 3-10 on the season.

Alexis Gaulden led the way for Tulsa with 21 points, followed by Kendrian Elliott's season-high of 12 points and 10 by Desiree Lewis. The Hurricane finished the game shooting over 40-percent from both the field (42.3) and three-point range (41.2), while the Miners shot just 32.7 percent from the field and 28.6-percent rom behind the arc.

"The first quarter set the tone for the entire game. We just got off to a great start; most of it was our defensive presence because we did some good things defensively, kept them off balance and made them take some tough shots," said Tulsa head coach Matilda Mossman. "I was proud of the way our players continued to fight. The third quarter wasn't what we wanted, but we tried to play a lot of people, which takes away flow."

Tulsa led by as many as 22 points in the first half and again at the 7:49 mark of the third quarter, 40-18, before the Miners went on a 12-1 run over the next 3:54 to cut its deficit to 41-30 on a Katrina Zec layup. The Hurricane wouldn't let UTEP get any closer and finished the third period on a 6-2 run for a 49-34 lead heading into the final period.

The Miners scored two points more in the third quarter than they scored all of the first half (16) and held an 18-14 advantage over the Hurricane in the third stanza.

Tulsa closed out the final quarter by outscoring the Miners 17-11. The Hurricane built its lead back to 20 points with 2:32 remaining in the contest on a KK Rodriguez layup. Maddie Bittle's third trey of the game gave Tulsa a 21-point lead at 64-43 with just under two minutes left to play.

Two Gaulden free throws with 0:25 remaining gave the Hurricane its final 21-point margin of victory at 66-45.

Tulsa took an early 7-0 lead within the first two minutes of the contest and went on to a 17-5 lead halfway through the opening quarter. The Hurricane held the Miners scoreless in the final five minutes while increasing its lead to 25-5 after one period.

The Hurricane increased its 20-point lead to 22 points on three different occasions in the second quarter and ended the first half with a 35-16 lead.

Gaulden led Tulsa with 11 first-half points as the Hurricane shot 39-percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, while holding the Miners to 19 percent from the field and 12-percent from 3-point range.

Tulsa will begin American Athletic Conference play on Friday as the Wichita State Shockers visit the Reynolds Center for a 7:00 p.m. contest.