Horne’s Buzzer-Beater Gives Tulsa 73-72 Win Over UCF in Home Finale

Sunday, March 6

Reynolds Center

1:00 PM

Tulsa

10-19,4-14AAC

UCF

17-11,9-9AAC

UCF

Tulsa

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Horne’s Buzzer-Beater Gives Tulsa 73-72 Win Over UCF in Home Finale

3/6/2022 5:09:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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The senior launches 55-footer for the victory

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TULSA, Okla. –– Jeriah Horne hit the game-winning three-pointer as time expired to give Tulsa a 73-72 victory over the UCF Knights Sunday afternoon in front of a Senior Day crowd of 3,587 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center

"Obviously, Jeriah's shot was incredible. This team has been working so hard so it was good to see something positive happen for them," said Tulsa Head Coach Frank Haith.

With under three seconds remaining in the contest, Horne grabbed the rebound from a Darius Perry missed free throw, took three dribbles and launched a 55-footer that hit nothin' but net to give Tulsa its first lead of the game and the one-point victory.

Senior Day 2022 — Tulsa Seniors LaDavius Draine, Rey Idowu, Curtis Haywood II, Coach Frank Haith,
Jeriah Horne, Darien Jackson

Tulsa (10-19, 4-14 AAC) trailed 70-65 when UCF's Perry hit a jumper with 0:11 left in the game. Sam Griffin took the ball down the court and knocked through a trey to make it a two-point game with 0:06 remaining. Perry made 1-of-2 free throws with 0:04 on the clock, then Griffin followed with two free throws to bring Tulsa to within one point, 71-70, with 0:03 on the clock. After a UCF timeout, Tulsa sent Perry to the line again on a quick foul at the 0:02.8 mark.

Perry made his first before Horne grabbed the defensive rebound off Perry's miss and launched the game-winner.

Horne ended the game with 21 points, connecting on 7-of-17 from the field and 5-of-11 from three-point range. Fellow senior Darien Jackson led the Tulsa attack with a career-high 22 points. He was 8-of-12 from the field, 3-of-4 from three-point range and 2-of-3 from the line in 35 minutes. Sophomore Sam Griffin added 15 points including seven points in the final 4:15.

UCF (17-11, 9-9 AAC) was led by Darin Green Jr. and C.J. Walker with 19 points apiece, while Perry added 17 points.

"This would rank right up there with Elijah Joiner's shot against Wichita State a couple years ago. This one, though, is unbelievable with what we've gone through this season. We kept battling. It wasn't pretty but we kept fighting. Our minsdset was always about we're going to win. We're fortunate they missed a couple free throws, and we made enough, got a couple rebounds. We had some breaks that we haven't been able to get this year, so it was good to see something go our way," added Haith.

The Knights led by as many as 14 in the second half, building its advantage to 55-41 with 10:09 remaining in the contest. Back-to-back three pointers by Jackson and Griffin cut Tulsa's 13-point deficit (58-45) to seven points, 58-51, with just over eight minutes remaining. The seven-point difference was the closest Tulsa had gotten since the 3:31 mark of the first half.

After the Knights increased its lead to double digits at 64-53 with 5:08 on the clock, the Hurricane scored the next eight points to pull within three at 64-61 with 3:28 left to play. Horne and Griffin hit three-pointers and Jackson scored on a fast-break layup during that stretch.

The Knights pushed its lead back to five points three times in the final 3:09 before the wild finish that saw the Hurricane prevail.

In the second half, Tulsa outscored the visitors 46-46, including 20-12 in the final seven minutes. The Hurricane shot 46-percent from the field, 41-percent from behind the arc and made all seven of its free throws, including 4-of-4 in the final 0:36. Tulsa also out-rebounded the Knights 24-14 in the second half.

For the game, Tulsa tied its season-high with 12 three-pointers and was even with the much taller Knights for points in the paint at 24 each.

"You just never know how your guys are going to react on Senior Night. We were trying, but I thought we were really tense and we had to fight through that," said Haith. "Fortunately, we kept the game in balance. It looked like we were in quicksand in the first half. We got going in the second half. We did a better job on Green but it was all about us getting rebounds. They were plus 10 in the first half, but we did a great job of securing clean rebounds in the second half."

UCF led the entire first half, taking its largest lead of 14 points when the score was 23-9 with 8:42 left on the clock. Tulsa responded with two straight three-pointers to cut its deficit to eight points at 23-15.

Tulsa got as close as seven points in the final four minutes of the first half at 31-24 and again at 33-26. After Nikita Konstantynovskyi's free throw made the score 36-27 at the 3:12 mark neither team scored the remainder of the first 20 minutes.

The Knights jumped out to a 6-0 lead on two three-pointers by Green before Jackson put Tulsa on the board with a fast-break dunk. Green's third trey put the Knights ahead 11-5 at the 14:49 mark.

The difference at halftime came at the free throw line and on the boards. Tulsa made just 4-of-11 freebies, while UCF made all six and held a 23-13 edge on the boards. The Hurricane shot better from the field than the Knights, 41 to 39-percent, while the two teams were nearly identical from behind the arc, UCF at 43 and Tulsa at 42-percent.

Jackson led Tulsa with 10 first-half points, while Green had a high 15 for the Knights.

Tulsa will play Wichita State at 2 p.m. this Thursday (March 10) in first round action of the American Athletic Conference Championship, which runs from March 10-13, at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.