Tulsa Falls to Air Force by One, 59-58

Saturday, November 13

Reynolds Center

12:00 PM

Tulsa

1-1,0-0AAC

Air Force

1-1,0-0Mountain West

Air Force

Tulsa

Tulsa Falls to Air Force by One, 59-58

11/13/2021 3:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Gamebook (PDF)

TULSA, Okla. –– Sam Griffin's game-high 21 points were not enough as Air Force overcame an 11-point deficit to take a 59-58 win in the opening round game of the Sunshine Slam in front of 2,538 fans Saturday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

AFA's Camden Vender Zwaag knocked down his third three-pointer of the game with 0:23 on the clock to take the 59-58 lead. Griffin's turnaround jumper in the paint with 0:01 left bounced around the rim and off, thus giving the Falcons the road victory.

Both teams are now 1-1 on the season.

Tulsa will continue play at the Sunshine Slam in Daytona Beach, Fla., facing Rhode Island on Nov. 20 and either Boston College or Utah on Nov. 21.

Tulsa came out of the locker room at halftime and scored the first 11 points to take a 36-30 lead within the first four minutes. The Hurricane extended its lead to 11 points, 46-35 on a Darien Jackson layup at the 10:18 mark.

The Falcons wouldn't go away though, scoring the next seven points to cut its deficit to four points at 46-42 with 8:33 left on the game clock. AFA marched all the way back to tie the score at 52-52 with 3:24 left in the contest. Over the final three minutes, the Hurricane led twice, and the score was tied two more times until Vander Zwaag's trey put the Falcons ahead for good.

AFA ended the game shooting 49-percent from the field, while Tulsa was held to just 37.3 percent. Jeriah Horne added 15 points for the Hurricane and had a game-high nine rebounds.

It was slow going in the first five minutes of the game as the two teams combined for just four points and 2-of-12 from the field and 0-of-7 from 3-point range. Air Force snapped the cold spell with the game's first 3-pointer at the 14:56 mark for a 5-2 Falcon lead.

The cold shooting continued for both teams through the 12-minute media timeout with Air Force holding a 7-6 lead as Tulsa was shooting 2-of-13 and AFA 3-of-9 from the field.

The Falcons went on a 6-0 run to take a 13-6 lead before Sam Griffin knocked in Tulsa's first 3-pointer of the game to make the Hurricane deficit 13-9. Griffin proceeded to hit his next three treys to give Tulsa its first lead at 19-18 with 6:45 left in the first half.

The Hurricane built its lead to 23-18 on a Rey Idowu layup before the Falcons went on a 10-0 run for a 28-23 lead with just under four minutes left on the first half clock.

Air Force ended the first 20 minutes with a 30-25 lead, while improving its shooting throughout the first half for 52-percent at the intermission. Tulsa shot just 28-percent from the field in the first half. Griffin kept the Hurricane in the game with 14 first-half points on 5-of-9 from the field, including 4-of-5 from three-point range.

Tulsa will be back in action Monday night at the Reynolds Center to face the PAC-12's Oregon State Beavers. Tipoff on ESPNU will be at 8:00 p.m.