Tulsa Falls to Murray State in Third Place Matchup

Sunday, November 20

Conway, S.C.

9:30 AM

Tulsa

2-3,0-0AAC

Murray State

3-2,0-0MVC

Murray St.

Tulsa

Tulsa Falls to Murray State in Third Place Matchup

11/20/2022 12:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Gamebook (PDF) | Season Stats (PDF)

CONWAY, S.C. –– The University of Tulsa men's basketball team couldn't overcome an early deficit in a 77-60 loss to Murray State in the third-place game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational on Sunday in the HTC Center.

The Golden Hurricane (2-3) places fourth and finishes the tournament 1-2. Murray State improves to 3-2 in 2022-23 after taking third in the invitational.

Bryant Selebangue recorded the second double-double of his young Tulsa career, scoring 14 points and securing 11 rebounds, leading the team in both categories. Sam Griffin finished in double figures with 11 points. He added three rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals. Anthony Pritchard also got in double figures with 10 points and led the team with six assists to go along with four rebounds.

The Racers finished with four players in double figures, led by 19 from Jamari Smith. Kenny White, Jr. added 16 and JaCobi Wood and DJ burns scored 12 and 11. Burns finished with a double-double, pulling down 15 rebounds, six of which created second looks for the Racers offense.

Murray State dominated the boards, outrebounding Tulsa 54-31, including 14 offensive rebounds that led to 16 second-chance points. Neither team shot well from beyond the arc, with Tulsa hitting just 4-23 (17.4 percent), while Murray State was 4-29 (13.8 percent.)

After a game-opening 3-pointer from Griffin, Tulsa missed seven of its next nine shots as the Racers took a 17-9 advantage at the 12:23 mark. Back-to-back triples from BB Knight got the Hurricane back within two, but TU couldn't turn the corner as a 14-2 run pushed the Racers lead to 31-18 with six minutes remaining in the half.

Tulsa failed to get the lead under 10 and trailed 41-28 at the break. The Hurricane shot 38.7 percent from the floor in the opening half, but only connected on three of its 13 3-point attempts (23.1 percent). Meanwhile the Racers connected on 46.9 percent of its shots, though only hit three triples as well.

Early second-half buckets from Griffin and Selebangue cut the lead to 11, but every time Tulsa looked poised to make a run, Murray State snuffed it out. The Racers pushed the lead to 20, 60-40, with 12: 41 to play, and it would hover around that mark until a 6-0 Tulsa run made it 62-48 with 9:09 to play.

Each team missed a few chances over the next minute and a half until the Racers knocked down a pair of free throws to end the cold streak. From there, Murray State would eventually grab a game-high 21-point lead, 74-53.

A Sterling Gaston-Chapman three started a 7-0 run to bring the lead back to 14, 74-60 with 1:44 to play. However, it was not enough as a jumper and free throw from Charlotte ended the scoring.

The Hurricane returns to action on Friday when Tulsa heads to Gallagher-Iba Arena for a showdown with the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Tipoff for the Black Friday matchup is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN+.