Jeffries, Scott Lead Tulsa to 95-79 Win over Memphis on Wednesday

Wednesday, January 30

Reynolds Center

7 PM

Tulsa

13-9, 3-6

Memphis

13-8, 5-3

Memphis

Tulsa

Photo by: Sam Lazarus

Jeffries, Scott Lead Tulsa to 95-79 Win over Memphis on Wednesday

1/30/2019 10:24:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

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TULSA, Okla. — DaQuan Jeffries scored a career-high 25 points to go along with eight rebounds, while Curran Scott added a season-high 20 points to lead Tulsa to a 95-79 win over Memphis on Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Jeffries went 8-of-12 from the field and 3-of-5 behind the arc as the Golden Hurricane (13-9, 3-6) snapped a three-game skid. Scott was 5-of-8 from the floor and hit eight of his nine free throws. The Edmond duo was joined in double figures by Sterling Taplin (14 points), Jeriah Horne (13 points) and Martins Igbanu (10 points).

In all, the Hurricane set season highs for points (95), field goals (30), assists (24) and field goal percentage (.545). Elijah Joiner contributed a career-high eight assists, while Taplin added four helpers.

"I thought we played really well from start to finish," head coach Frank Haith said. "We did a lot of good things and I thought our defense was really good in the first half. We shared the ball and we did a lot of good things offensively. We knew they (Memphis) would ramp it up and be aggressive so we had some turnovers during a stretch, but I'm proud of how we stood our ground and made the plays we needed to make to finish the game."

"They (Memphis) get out and make it tough on you in the backcourt and handling the ball so we were able to get some easy ones and I think that got us going as far as when we got it into the halfcourt," Scott said. "We were moving the ball, sharing the ball, getting open ones, and feel-good shots almost so that was big for us. I think we can use this as a stepping stone to move onto the next one and keep trying to rattle off wins here."

Meanwhile, Tyler Harris led the Tigers (13-8, 5-3) with 18 points off the bench, all of which came in the second half. Kyvon Davenport had a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds and Memphis heated up to 40.6-percent shooting for the contest after connecting at 50-percent (18-of-36) in the second half.

The Tigers got the opening basket, but it was all Tulsa after that and the Hurricane took the lead for good with an 11-0 run. TU pounded the ball inside to the tune of 22 points in the paint during the opening period and those close shots helped the home squad shoot 51.5-percent.

Midway through the half, Tulsa rattled off a 10-2 spurt to extend its cushion to double-digits. Minutes later, the squad made four straight shots, including a triple from Lawson Korita and a pair of jumpers by Curran Scott, to push the lead to 44-22.

Memphis would outscore TU 9-4 over the final three minutes of the half, but the Hurricane lead was a comfortable 48-31 at halftime. The 48 points for Tulsa was its best output in a first half this season.

Jeffries would throw down the first of his two monster and-1 dunks early in the second half to help maintain the 20-point cushion. However, the Tigers went on an 11-1 run that sliced the Tulsa lead to 64-53 with 10:13 left.

Scott and Horne helped the Hurricane answer as the pair hit 3-pointers and Taplin drove in for a fast-break layup to hold the double-digit cushion despite four straight triples by Harris.

With the lead down to 74-66 with 6:34 remaining, Jeffries took a long pass and again jammed it home despite being fouled to bring the home crowd to its feet.

Tulsa continued to answer any Memphis charge and never let the advantage slip below nine points the rest of the way. Scott hit his second trey of the night with 2:02 to play and then made all six of his free throws in the final 70 seconds to secure the 95-79 final.

The Hurricane will head back out on the road for a 1 p.m. matchup at Wichita State (9-11, 2-6) on Saturday, Feb. 2 in the first Havoc in the Heartland contest of the season.

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