Tulsa’s Comeback Bid Falls Short in 67-63 Loss to SFA

Tuesday, November 5

Reynolds Center

7:00 pm

Tulsa

0-1,0-0AAC

Stephen F. Austin

1-0,0-0Southland

SFA

Tulsa

Tulsa’s Comeback Bid Falls Short in 67-63 Loss to SFA

11/5/2019 9:44:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Final Stats in PDF l Season Stats in PDF l Photo Gallery

Trailing by as many as 24 points, the Tulsa women made a valiant comeback bid to get as close as 3 points but ran out of time and fell to the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks, 67-63, Tuesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Tulsa was led by Addison Richards' career-high 15 points, while Morgan Brady added 13 and Kendrian Elliott turned in a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Tulsa played without its top returning scorer from a year ago, Alexis Gaulden, and heralded freshman, Destiny Johnson, due to injuries.

"I am proud of our effort in the 4^th quarter," Head Coach Matilda Mossman said. "After being down by 24, our kids fought, our kids battled and they never gave up and that's what we are going to build on. We're going to fix some things from the third quarter, but we'll build on their effort, their intensity and their heart in that fourth quarter."

The Hurricane trailed 57-33 with 0:45 to play in the 3^rd quarter, before mounting a come-from-behind effort in the 4^th stanza. SFA led by 22 at the end of 3 quarter.

The Ladyjacks scored 30 points in the 3^rd period on 11-of-16 from the field and 6-of-10 from 3-point range, while Tulsa managed just 14 points of 6-of-13 from the field, but suffered 7 turnovers.

In the 4^th quarter, the Hurricane was just as dominant in the period as the Ladyjacks were in the 3^rd quarter. Tulsa kept chipping away at the SFA lead by converting 11-of-17 field goals and 3-of-4 treys with 11 rebounds, 9 assists and 4 steals. Tulsa's defense held the Ladyjacks to just 3 field goals and 27-percent in the final period.

Tulsa got the game within single digits at the 2-minute mark on a Brady 3-pointer that made the score 63-54. Brady hit another trey at the 1:06 mark cutting the deficit to 6 points.

Two Elliott free throws and a layup by Richards cut the SFA lead to 3 points with 0:22 to play. SFA's Marissa Banfield hit two free throws to push the lead to 5 points at 66-61 before Richards jumper in the paint with 0:12 on the clock made it a 3-point game again. Banfield made 1-of-2 free throws in the last 0:10 for the 4-point victory.

Leading by 6 at halftime, the Ladyjacks came out of the locker room and put up the first 8 points to take a 35-21 lead with the first 2:09 of the quarter. The 3-pointer was dropping early in the 3^rd quarter for SFA. After hitting just 2-of-12 treys in the first half, the Ladyjacks knocked down their first 4 treys of the 3^rd quarter to take a 41-24 lead at the 6:13 mark.

SFA closed out the 3^rd quarter on top by a score of 57-35.

Both teams started slowly to start the game as the end of the first quarter SFA held an 8-6 lead. SFA scored within the first minute of the game, but it took the Hurricane nearly 3 minutes before Desiree Lewis hit Tulsa's first basket of the 2019-20 season at the 7:10 mark.

For the first stanza, SFA was 3-of-20 from the field, while Tulsa was 3-of-15 and the two teams combined for an 0-of-9 first period from behind the arc.

In the second quarter, things heated up somewhat for both teams. The Ladyjacks scored 19 points to Tulsa's 15. SFA took an 11-point lead with 3:34 left on the clock at 25-14. The Hurricane closed out the first 20 minutes on a 7-2 run to cut its halftime deficit to 27-21.

Despite trailing at the intermission, Tulsa had a better field goal percentage than the Ladyjacks, 32.3% to 27.8%, but SFA was 5-of-5 from the free throw line whereas Tulsa did not have an attempt from the charity stripe.

Tulsa's Rebecca Lescay led Tulsa with 7 points, including a 3-pointer from the top of the key as the halftime buzzer sounded.

Tulsa will continue its 5-game home-stand to start the season this Saturday, Nov. 9 against Arkansas State. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.