Tulsa Outlasts Tulane for 91-89 Overtime Win on Thursday

Thursday, February 8

Reynolds Center

6 PM

Tulsa

14-10, 7-5

Tulane

13-10, 4-7

OT 1

Tulane

Tulsa

Photo by: John Lew

Tulsa Outlasts Tulane for 91-89 Overtime Win on Thursday

2/8/2018 9:40:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

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TULSA, Okla. — Sterling Taplin scored 17 points to go along with eight assists and his layup with 8.2 seconds left in overtime lifted Tulsa to a 91-89 victory over Tulane on Thursday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Taplin was one of five players in double-figures for the Golden Hurricane (14-10, 7-5), who improved to 6-1 in overtime games under head coach Frank Haith. Junior Etou recorded his third consecutive double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Corey Henderson Jr. also finished with 19 points.

Martins Igbanu (17 points/9 rebounds) and Jaleel Wheeler (11 points/9 rebounds) each neared double-doubles. Tulsa shot 47.5-percent and owned a 45-30 advantage on the glass, including 15 offensive rebounds that led to 19 second-chance points.

"Heck of a ball game," Haith said. "I'm really proud of our guys. We found a way. In the first half, give Tulane a lot of credit. They were very aggressive and in attack mode. They did a really good job of driving us and getting in the paint. When you look at the second half, we made some adjustments in understanding that we needed to be in attack mode. We were really good on the glass, which the last couple of games has been really good for us. There were a lot of guys that made some big plays. A lot of guys stepped up. It was kind of a bang-bang game, a lot of things went back and forth, but I'm really proud of how we stood strong and found a way to win the game."

"One thing we do in practice is play four-minute games," Taplin said. "There were stretches where we were in the huddle and we would say 'it's just a 4 minute game, we can do this, keep playing hard.' And when we went into overtime we were like 'we're built for this.' We just had to come out and play hard and rebound the ball."

Samir Sehic came off the bench to lead the Green Wave (13-10, 4-7) with 21 points, while Jordan Cornish had 20 points and Cameron Reynolds added a double-double of 17 points and 10 boards.

The Hurricane trailed by as much as a dozen with 16:30 to play and the deficit was 63-53 with just 10:55 on the clock after a 3-pointer from Cornish. Tulsa chipped away at the Tulane lead and finally tied the score at 71 with 4:28 left.

However, the Green Wave quickly regained a five-point lead before the Hurricane made a final push over the final three minutes. Taplin hit two free throws with 45 seconds left and again with just 13 seconds remaining that tied the game each time. Cornish missed a 3-pointer and Taplin blocked Reynolds's rebound and putback to send the game to overtime.

In the extra session, Taplin found a cutting DaQuan Jeffries for a basket to grab the lead early, but neither team would lead by more than three points during the period for a tight finish.

Another Cornish triple tied the score at 89 with just 40 ticks left. With the shot clock winding down on Tulsa's ensuing possession, Taplin drove in and finished through contact just before the buzzer to give the Hurricane the lead.

The Hurricane got the defensive stop it needed as Riley Conroy's 3-point attempt just before the buzzer went wide left as Tulsa closed out its largest comeback victory of the season.

Both teams started hot from the floor and Tulsa led 14-11 through the first five minutes. The Golden Hurricane would go on an 8-0 run for a 22-13 lead and had a 24-17 cushion before the Green Wave went on a 15-2 run to take a 32-26 advantage.

After an Etou 3-pointer pulled Tulsa within 36-33, Tulane outscored the Hurricane 8-1 down the stretch to take a 44-34 lead to halftime. The Green Wave hit eight of its final nine shots of the period and scored 30 points in the paint.

Tulsa will be back in action at 6 p.m. (CT) on Thursday, Feb. 15 when it travels east to take on UConn (12-12, 5-6) at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn.

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