Tulsa Comeback Falls Short 69-65 Against Wichita State in AAC Opener

Tuesday, December 15

Reynolds Center

6:00 PM

Tulsa

1-3,0-1AAC

Wichita State

2-2,1-0AAC

Wichita St.

Tulsa

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa Comeback Falls Short 69-65 Against Wichita State in AAC Opener

12/15/2020 9:33:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

GAME STATS I PHOTO GALLERY I PRESS CONFERENCE I SEASONS STATS

TULSA, Okla. –– Brandon Rachal led Tulsa's valiant comeback attempt against the Wichita State Shockers (2-2, 1-0 AAC) with 17 points, but it wasn't enough as the Golden Hurricane fell short 69-65 Tuesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Tulsa (1-3, 0-1 AAC) trailed by as many as 17 first-half points but outscored the Shockers by 10 points, 36-26, in the second half. The Hurricane scored the first 4 points out of intermission and cut a 14-point halftime deficit to 2 points with 0:28 left on the game clock.

Rachal added 11 rebounds to go along with his 17 points for his 5^th double-double of his two-year career with the Hurricane, while Curtis Haywood II and Elijah Joiner added 11 points. Joiner also had a high-game of 5 assists.

After starting out the game poorly from the field, the Hurricane ended the contest shooting 42-percent. Tulsa managed only 11-of-21 free throws for 52 percent from the line. Wichita State began the game on fire, but Tulsa's defense slowed the Shockers down to a final field goal percentage of 41 percent.

After a Travis Etienne 3-pointer gave the Shockers a 46-33 lead at the 17:56 mark of the second half, the Hurricane scored the next 9 points to cut WSU's lead to 46-42 when Darien Jackson scored on an alley-oop from Elijah Joiner with 15:05 on the clock. The 4-point deficit was the closest for the Hurricane since 19:36 of the first half.

Tulsa cut WSU's lead to 3 points at 50-47 with 13:40 remaining on two Embery-Simpson free throws and then again at 58-55 on a Rachal three-pointer at the 8:24 mark. WSU's Alterique Gilbert responded with a two-pointer and a trey to put the Shockers up by 8 points at 63-55 with just over 7 minutes to play.

After Tulsa cut its deficit to 5 points, a three-pointer by Craig Porter put Wichita State back up by 8 points at the 3:40 mark. Tulsa whittled its deficit down to 2 points after 1-of-2 Rey Idowu free throws with 0:28 left on the game clock, but could not overtake the Shockers.

Wichita State jumped out to a 7-0 lead before the Hurricane scored its first point on an Emmanuel Ugboh free throw. Tulsa's first field goal came on three-pointer by Keyshawn Embery-Simpson at the 16:19 mark to make the score 9-4.

Tulsa reached double-digits when Rachal's layup off a rebound made the score 18-11. The 7-point deficit was the lowest of the half for the Hurricane. Tulsa also trailed by 7 points 33-26 on two Rachal free throws, but the Shockers scored the next 10 points in a 2-minute span.

WSU knocked down 7 treys in the first half and built its lead to as many as 17 points with 1:33 left on the first-half clock.

At halftime, Tulsa trailed by 14 points, 43-29, as the Shockers shot 50-percent from 3-point range and 44-percent overall. Tulsa connected on just 35 percent of its field goals in the half and had 7 turnovers compared to 2 for the Shockers.

Tulsa will be back in action this Friday at the Reynolds Center with a 6:00 p.m. game against Northwestern (La.) State. The game will be aired on ESPN+.