Tulsa Falls 68-49 to #2-Ranked UConn Huskies

Sunday, February 24

Reynolds Center

2:00 pm

Tulsa

11-15, 5-8

UConn

25-2, 13-0

UConn

Tulsa

Tulsa Falls 68-49 to #2-Ranked UConn Huskies

2/24/2019 4:44:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Tulsa put up a valiant effort on Sunday afternoon against the nation's 2^nd ranked UConn Huskies, but fell 68-49 in front of a season-high 2,612 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Morgan Brady and Crystal Polk led the Hurricane attack with 17 and 14 points, respectively, while each of UConn's starters scored in double digits with Megan Walker leading the way with 21 points.

UConn played the game without head coach Geno Auriemma, who was sidelined with an illness. Associate head coach Chris Dailey coached the team in Auriemma's absence.

"I'm really proud of our team. We battled with them. We out-rebounded them. We held them to 68 after they've been averaging in the 80s. I think they've scored 100 points in two of their last four games," said Tulsa head coach Matilda Mossman.

"I thought we did some really good things when we were in rhythm offensively. The big thing was we defended them well, while the negative was that we had too many turnovers, which resulted in layups or transition points at the other end. They're so long, they don't give you much of a passing angle. They take up a lot of space. We had a lot of live ball turnovers. We lose by 19 points, and they score 17 off of our turnovers," added Mossman.

After an early lead for the Hurricane, the 11-time national champion Huskies took the lead for good with a 15-0 run to close out the first quarter. UConn outscored Tulsa in the second half by only 5 points, 27 to 22. Leading by 14 points at the intermission, UConn came out after halftime and outscored the Hurricane 15-6 for a 56-33 lead after three periods, but Tulsa outscored the Huskies 16-12 in the final quarter.

Tulsa out-rebounded the Huskies 41-to-39, but the Huskies forced Tulsa into 19 turnovers and outscored the Hurricane 17-to-6 off turnovers. Tulsa shot just 33-percent from the field for the game, while UConn connected on 40-percent.

To start the game, Tulsa jumped out to a 6-0 lead and increased it to 9-2 in the first three minutes. The Hurricane led 14-7 at the 5:08 mark before the Huskies closed out the first quarter on a 15-0 run for a 22-14 lead after the opening period.

The Huskies took its first double-digit lead at 29-18 with less than 4 minutes gone in the period. Tulsa scored 7 straight points in the next 1:05 to cut its deficit to 4 points making the score 29-25 with 5:10 left on the first half clock. UConn outscored the Hurricane 12-2 the rest of the half to take a 41-27 lead into intermission.

Tulsa ended the first 20 minutes shooting 31-perent from the field, but connected on 5-of-10 treys. UConn knocked down 48-percent of its field goals and was shooting just 31-percent from 3-point range.

Tulsa's Brady led all scorers in the first half with 12 points, connecting on 4-of-6 treys, while Walker with 11 and Christyn Williams with 10 points paced UConn. The much taller Huskies had a 12-to-2 advantage scoring in the paint in the first half.

Tulsa goes on the road for a Wednesday night game at Temple in Philadelphia, Pa., for a 6:00 p.m. (CT) tipoff, before returning home to close out the home season with a March 2, 2:00 p.m. game against East Carolina.