Tulsa Wins Mayor’s Cup over ORU 74-67

Tuesday, November 12

Reynolds Center

7 PM

Tulsa

2-1,0-0AAC

Oral Roberts

1-2,0-0Summit League

Oral Roberts

Tulsa

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Wins Mayor’s Cup over ORU 74-67

11/12/2019 10:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

GAME STATS I PRESS CONFERENCE I PHOTO GALLERY I SEASON STATS

TULSA, Okla. –– Brandon Rachal scored a game-high 24 points to lead four players in double-figures as Tulsa won the Mayor's Cup over cross-town rival Oral Roberts, 74-67, Tuesday night in front of 3,705 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Tulsa (2-1) won the Cup for the 36^th time in the 55 meetings between the two schools that are located only 16 miles apart.

"I thought we beat a really good ORU team tonight. I think they're really good. They're going to have a great year. They've got good size, good shooting. We beat a really good team," said Tulsa head coach Frank Haith.

Rachal was 9-of-12 from the field and 5-of-6 from the free throw line, including 2 freebies with 0:27 to play to make the score 71-64. He added 9 rebounds and 3 steals. Lawson Korita added 12 points, including 8 second-half points, while freshman Isaiah Hill, making his first collegiate start, added 12 points and a team-high 8 assists, and Martins Igbanu tallied 11 points.

Tulsa's Darien Jackson led Tulsa in rebounding with 11 boards and added 6 points, 4 assists and 2 steals.

ORU (1-2) also had four double-figure scorers, led by Kevin Obanor's 13 points, The Golden Eagles made 10-of-35 three-pointers, while Tulsa connected on just 4 treys.

Tulsa shot 50-percent from the field, while the Golden Eagles knocked down just 33-percent of its field goals. The Hurricane also had a rebounding advantage of 44-38. For the third consecutive game, Tulsa had the edge for paint scoring with a 36-to-16 advantage.

"Obviously, these two guys (Rachal and Hill) are newcomers -- and we're still trying to figure it all about -- but they were outstanding tonight. I also want to include Darien Jackson's play defensively. Eleven rebounds, a couple steals, just how he plays and his energy that he plays with was outstanding. There were a number of guys we got good minutes out of tonight," added Haith.

Trailing by 4 points at halftime, ORU out-scored Tulsa 8-2 in the first 1:44 of the second half to take a 36-34 lead. Rachal responded with a three-pointer to put Tulsa back on top 37-36. Tulsa held the lead until ORU's Deondre Burns scored a layup to give the Golden Eagles a 43-42 lead at the 14:15 mark.

The Eagles maintained the lead for nearly the next 4 minutes until Rachal's layup knotted the game at 50-50 with 10:32 on the clock. From that point, Tulsa went on a 15-5 run over the next 7 minutes. Jackson's layup at the 10:13 mark that made the score 52-50 started the Hurricane run.

After ORU cut its deficit to 2 points at 54-52, Tulsa scored the next 7 points for a 61-52 lead on another Igbanu free throw.

At the start of the contest, Tulsa had a 9-5 lead at the first media timeout before ORU scored the next 5 points to take a 10-9 lead at the 13:16 mark. The Hurricane retook the lead and kept it for the remainder of the first half, fluctuating between a one-point lead to a high of 7 points twice.

Hill's 3-pointer at the 7:28 mark gave Tulsa its first 7-point advantage at 22-15, while Rachal's jumper put Tulsa ahead 24-17 at the 6:29 mark.

The Golden Eagles cut its deficit to one point within the final 3:22 of the half before the Hurricane scored the final 3 points, ending the half with a 4-point lead at 32-28.

At intermission, Tulsa had converted 48-percent of its field goals, while the Golden Eagles were 10-of-33 for 30-percent. ORU hit just 3-of-16 from behind the arc in the first 30 minutes. Rachal and Hill paced Tulsa in the first half with 9 points apiece, while ORU had three players with 6 points.

Tulsa continues its 4-game home-stand at Donald W. Reynolds Center with a 2 p.m. start time Saturday against Austin Peay.