Tulsa Women Fall for First Time this Season

Wednesday, December 22

Reynolds Center

12:00 pm

Tulsa

10-1,0-0AAC

San Francisco

6-6,0-0WCC

San Francisco

Tulsa

Photo by: Bill Powell

Tulsa Women Fall for First Time this Season

12/22/2021 3:14:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Tulsa drops 78-76 decision to San Francisco

Final Stats in PDF
Season Stats in PDF
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TULSA, OKLA. –– The San Francisco Dons outscored Tulsa 14-2 to close out the game and capture a 78-76 victory over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane on Wednesday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. Tulsa fell to 10-1 on the season while the Dons evened its record to 6-6.

It was a game that saw each team hold double-digit leads, USF in the first half and Tulsa in the second half, but it came down to the final four minutes where the Dons took control.

"We try to make everything a teachable moment. Our players are working extremely hard and we are still building our foundation and our culture within this team and we'll continue to do that no matter what the results say," said Head Coach Angie Nelp.

Maddie Bittle led four double-figure scorers for the Hurricane with 18 points. Rebecca Lescay added 12, while Delanie Crawford and Wyvette Mayberry had 11 points apiece. Claudia Langarita led USF with 17 points.

USF shot 54-percent from the field and 50-percent from three-point range, knocking in nine treys, for the game. Tulsa had its worst shooting game of the season at 37-percent from the field.

Over the final 4:09, USF turned a 74-64 deficit into a 77-74 lead with 0:08 remaining on the game clock. Lescay hit two free throws with 0:05 on the clock to make the score 77-76 before the Dons hit the final free throw for the two-point victory. Tulsa was 0-of-7 from the field in the final 4:09.

"We gave them some open looks in the last four minutes. Regardless of the outcome I'm proud of this team and their fight today. We had a few lapses in there that we will work really hard to close those gaps so we don't have those moving forward," Nelp added.

In the final quarter, Tulsa shot just 4-of-16 for just a .250 field goal percentage, while USF connected on 9-of-14 field goals for 64 percent. The Dons outscored the Hurricane in the final period by 10 points, 24-14.

At the start of the second half, Lescay broke the halftime tie with two free throws that gave Tulsa a 41-39 lead. USF retook the lead twice at 42-41 and again at 44-42 before the Hurricane closed out the quarter on a 20-10 run to end the third period with a 62-54 lead.

Tulsa outscored the Dons 23-15 in the third quarter as Bittle scored 14 points in the period on 4-of-5 from the field, 2-of-2 from behind the arc and 4-of-6 from the free throw line. Bittle's three-pointer at the 2:45 mark of the third quarter gave Tulsa its first double-digit lead at 57-45. Her trey capped an 11-0 run in a time period of 2:35 off the clock.

In a 12-minute stretch during the two middle periods, the Hurricane outscored the Dons 34-9 en route to a 57-45 lead.

Maya Mayberry's fast-break layup put Tulsa ahead by 10 points, 64-54, to start the final quarter. Lescay's free throw gave Tulsa another 10-point lead at 74-64 with 4:09 left on the game clock. USF scored the next 11 points to take a 75-74 lead on Kennedy Dickie's trey with 0:52 remaining in the contest.

San Francisco jumped out to a 6-0 lead to start the game before Tulsa's Temira Poindexter ended the home team's 2:11 scoring drought with a jumper at the 7:49 mark. Tulsa battled back to take a 10-9 advantage with 5:16 on the first-quarter clock. Wyvette Mayberry scored the next eight points for the Hurricane as the two teams ended the first frame tied at 19-all.

The Dons climbed out to a 30-19 lead with a 11-0 run to start the second quarter as they were a perfect 3-of-3 from the field and 2-2 from the free throw line to start the frame. Jessika Evans' layup at the 6:57 mark was the first second period score for the Hurricane to make the score 30-21.

The visitors took its largest lead of 13 points at the 5:51 mark and again at the 5:23 mark of the second quarter. Tulsa closed out the final 5:03 of the first half on a 16-3 run to tie the score 39-39 going into intermission as five different Hurricane players scored during the run.

Tulsa took its first lead since the 0:36 mark of the first period when Maya Mayberry's jumper made the score 39-38 with 0:57 left in the first half. USF tied it before halftime on one free throw at the 0:39 mark.

At halftime, USF was shooting 54 percent from the field while Tulsa knocked through 46 percent of their shots. All eight Tulsa players scored in the first 20 minutes as Wyvette Mayberry led the way with eight points.

Tulsa will return to action on Tuesday, December 28 on the road against the Oklahoma State Cowgirls beginning at 6:30 pm at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla.