Tulsa Men Host Southeastern Louisiana Wednesday

GAME #5: TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (3-1) vs. Southeastern Louisiana (2-2)
Date/Time:	Wednesday • Nov. 20, 2019 • 7:00 p.m. (CT)
Site:	Donald W. Reynolds Center (8,355) • Tulsa, Okla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 5th year SE Louisiana – David Kiefer (Kansas State '07), 1st year
TV:	TulsaHurricane.com
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard & J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	First Meeting
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa (PDF) I Southeastern Louisiana

THE GAME
• This is the third meeting between Tulsa and Southeastern Louisiana.
• The game is the 4th of 5 home games in the month of November for the Hurricane.
• Frank Haith is coaching his 500th career game as a collegiate head coach tonight.
• Southeastern Louisiana is 2-2 on the season … the Lions' wins came against Xavier (La.) and Mobile, while the losses came at Tulane and against Grambling State.

A TULSA WIN WOULD
• Extend Tulsa's non-conference home winning streak to 17 games.
• Tulsa is 3-0 at home this season, won all 8 non-league home games last year and went 5-1 in the 2017-18 season … Tulsa's last non-conference home loss was against Lamar in the 2017-18 season opener, 74-67 on Nov. 10, 2017-18.

THE SERIES
• Tulsa has a 2-0 series lead against Southeastern Louisiana.
• The previous two meetings have both been in Tulsa … the Hurricane won 97-70 in January 1992 and again in November 2011 by a score of 67-52.
• Tulsa has a win margin of 21.0 points, as Tulsa averaged 82.0 points in the first 2 games compared to SE Louisiana's 61.0 average.

RACHAL NAMED THE AMERICAN PLAYER OF THE WEEK
• JC transfer Brandon Rachal averaged 27.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 1.0 assists in 2 wins last week thus earning the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week honor.
• He had two straight 20+ scoring games with 24 points against Oral Roberts and 30 points vs. Austin Peay.
• In the ORU game, he added 9 rebounds and 3 steals in a 74-67 victory. Against Austin Peay, Rachal added 7 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 assists as Tulsa won 72-65.
• He shot 9-of-12 from the field in both games for a two-game FG percentage of .750, while also shooting .600 from 3-point range and .882 from the free throw line.

THE LAST HOME GAME
• Tulsa moved to 3-0 at home this season with a  72-65 win over Austin Peay on Saturday.
• Newcomer Brandon Rachal scored a career-high 30 points, while he scored Tulsa's first 14 points and had 18 points at halftime.
• Trailing by 2 at halftime, the Hurricane scored the first 4 points out of the locker room and took an 8-point lead three times.
• Rachal's jumper to tie the score at 59 started a 9-2 run that put the Hurricane ahead 66-61 with 2:01 left to play.
• Tulsa turned up the intensity in the second half when the Hurricane held APU to 31-percent from the field as compared to 48-percent in the first half and accounted for 8 second-half steals.
• In the 2nd half, Tulsa overturned APU's 18-8 edge for points in the paint in the first half to a 32-22 advantage at the end of the game.

SHARING THE WEALTH
• In Tulsa's first 3 games it was a different player who stepped up to lead the Hurricane, including 3 different leading scorers.
• In the opener against Houston Baptist, junior Jeriah Horne led the scoring with 22 points in a starting role, while Brandon Rachal had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds
• Against UTA, Reggie Jones came off the bench to lead Tulsa with 19 points and added 5 rebounds … Darien Jackson had a team-high 7 boards and added 12 points off the bench.
• In the ORU game, Rachal led Tulsa in scoring with 24 points and added 9 rebounds …freshman Isaiah Hill added 12 points and a team-high 8 assists, while Jackson had a team-high 11 rebounds.
• In Tulsa's 4th game, it was a repeat player to lead the team in scoring (Rachal - 30), rebounds (Rachal - 7) and assists (Hill -4).

IN THE PAINT
• In the 4 games this season, Tulsa is scoring 48.4-percent of its points in the paint (138 of 285 total points).
• Tulsa  averages 17.0 more points in the paint than its opponents (138 to 70).
• The Hurricane tallied 48 points in the paint in the season opener vs. Houston Baptist, 22 at UT-Arlington and 36 against Oral Roberts.
• The biggest margin was a 28-point margin for in the paint scoring against HBU (48 to 20).
• After trailing Austin Peay at halftime 18-8 for points in the paint, the Hurricane turned it around in the 2nd half and finished the game with a 32-22 advantage.

NEW LINEUP
• Frank Haith used a new starting lineup in Tulsa's last two games with Martins Igbanu, Brandon Rachal, Lawson Korita, Darien Jackson and Isaiah Hill.
• This starting lineup has scored 84.2-percent of Tulsa's points in the 2 games.
• Against ORU, the starters scored 89-percent of Tulsa's points (66 of 74 points) , while shooting .575 from the field, and also had 13 of the team's 16 assists, all 7 steals and 27 of 44 rebounds.
• Four of the starters (Rachal, Korita, Hill, Igbanu) scored in double-digits, while the 5th starter (Jackson) had double-digit rebounds vs. ORU.
• In the Austin Peay contest, Tulsa got 57 points and 21 rebounds from the starting unit for 79-percent of the team's points and 58-percent of the team's rebounds … the starters also had 14 of 19 assists and all 12 of the team's steals.

JUNIOR JACKSON BRINGS ENERGY
• Junior Darien Jackson has been all over the court in Tulsa's first 4 games by doing a little bit of everything
• He has two double-digit scoring games (12 at UTA, 16 vs. APU), a double-digit rebounding game (11 vs. ORU), and had  high games of 5 steals vs. HBU and 4 assists vs. ORU.
• Jackson averages 10.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.5 steals, while playing 26.2 minutes per game.
• Jackson is 2nd on the team in scoring (19.8), first in steals (10) and second in rebounding (5.8) and assists (11).
• He was a perfect 6-of-6 from the field against Austin Peay, while knocking down a career-high 16 points.

RACHAL MAKING IMPACT
• Brandon Rachal, a JC transfer in his first season,  leads Tulsa in scoring (17.0) and rebounding (7.5), while shooting 53-percent from the field and 90-percent from the free throw line.
• In the last 2 games, Rachal has averaged 27.0 points and 8.0 rebounds … he led all American Athletic Conference players with the highest scoring average last week.
• Rachal has shot 75-percent from the fielld (18-23), 60-percent from 3-point range (3-5) and 88-percent from the free throw line (15-17) in Tulsa's last 2 games.

JUST WAITING
• Tulsa is just waiting for the two players who returned this season as the top-2 scorers and rebounders – Martins Igbanu and Jeriah Horne – to get in high gear.
• The duo still combines to average 19 points and 8.8 rebounds through the first 4 games, but are only shooting 37-percent from the field and 15-percent from 3-point range.
• Last year, the tandem averaged 22.6 points and 10.6 rebounds between them, but their shooting percentages were much higher, combining for .522 from the field.
• Igbanu averaged 12.5 points and 5.7 rebounds, while Horne scored at a 10.1 clip and grabbed 4.9 rebounds
• In the shooting columns, Igbanu had the AAC's 2nd-best percentage from the field (.616), but is making only 41.7-percent of his shots this year … Horne shot .374 from 3-point range a year ago, but is at only 15.8-percent this season.

HOME COOKIN'
• After hosting the first TU men's basketball game on Dec. 29, 1998, the Golden Hurricane is in its 22nd season in the Donald W. Reynolds Center this year.
• Tulsa has posted an overall record of 256-75 (.773) in its 20+ seasons, including 3-0 this year and a 14-3 mark last season. Tulsa's 14 home wins last year were the most for the team since 2009-10, when it claimed 16 home wins.
• The building has seen 42 sellouts and 1,931,620 fans have witnessed Tulsa basketball at the Reynolds Center.

EARNING DEGREES
• Frank Haith has made achievement in the classroom as much of a priority as success on the basketball court over his nearly 15 years as a head coach. During head coaching tenures at Miami, Missouri and Tulsa, 59 of the 63 (93.1-percent) seniors that have come through his programs have earned a degree.
• Since arriving at Tulsa, 19 of the program's 20 seniors (95-percent) have graduated, including DaQuan Jeffries, Alex Foree, Sterling Taplin, Lindsay Deline Jr. and Curran Scott from last year's team.
• Additionally, Tulsa has had at least two student-athletes recognized on the American Athletic Conference All-Academic Team in each of Haith's five seasons. Last year, Tulsa placed eight student-athletes (George Christopoulos, Lindsay Deline Jr., Alex Foree, Peter Hewitt, Jeriah Horne, Martins Igbanu, Reggie Jones and Curran Scott) on the team, which honors student-athletes with at least a 3.0 GPA.

Tulsa Men Host Southeastern Louisiana Wednesday

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Players Mentioned

George Christopoulos

Lindsay Deline Jr.

Alex Foree

Peter Hewitt

Isaiah Hill

Jeriah Horne

Martins Igbanu

Darien Jackson

DaQuan Jeffries

Reggie Jones

Lawson Korita

Brandon Rachal

Curran Scott

Sterling Taplin