Tulsa Women Hold Off Rice 70-65

Wednesday, January 24

Reynolds Center

6:30 PM

Tulsa

15-5,5-2AAC

Rice

11-7,5-2AAC

Rice

Tulsa

Photo by: Bill Powell

Tulsa Women Hold Off Rice 70-65

1/24/2024 10:26:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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Hurricane improves to 15-5 and 5-2 in the AAC

TULSA, Okla. –– Tulsa's Delanie Crawford and Temira Poindexter combined for 48 points as the Golden Hurricane held off the Rice Owls comeback bid for a 70-65 victory Wednesday night in front of 1,768 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Crawford scored a game-high 26 points on 7-of-15 from the field, 4-of-5 from three-point range and 8-of-8 from the charity stripe, while Poindexter added 22 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Tulsa improved to 15-5 overall and 5-2 in the American Athletic Conference, while Rice dropped to 11-7 and 5-2 in league play.

"I'm just so proud of our team for the way that they finished the game. Things went our way early in the game, we were able to knock down shots and get going in transition. We were able to get flowing offensively. And then this the second half was a little bit different for us. We didn't shoot the ball as well as we had in the first half," said Tulsa Head Coach Angie Nelp.

Rice tied the score at 63 with 2:25 left in the contest after trailing by as many as 19 points early in the third quarter. Mady Cartwright's driving layup with 0:48 on the clock put the Hurricane back ahead 65-63 before Rice's Destiny Jackson matched Tulsa's score with a layup of her own for a 65-65 game.

Tulsa converted 5-of-6 free throws in the final 0:29 to claim the five-point win. Crawford converted the first two free throws to make the score 67-65. After a Rice turnover, Crawford drew another foul and knocked down both freebies for a 69-65 lead with 0:18 remaining. Cartwright made 1-of-2 with 0:13 remaining for the final point of the game.

"We had some players with some outstanding performances. Delanie Crawford is one that just does it on both ends of the floor. You look at her seven rebounds and her 26 points and you see her ability to really play offensively all over the floor. When a defender takes something away, she's able to find a different way to score. Temira Poindexter was huge in the second in how she was scoring around the rim for us and her aggressiveness to the basket. Then, Mady Cartwright came up huge you know for us with that layup there at the end with the free throw. We really had good contributors from our team all the way around," added Nelp.

The Hurricane took the game's largest lead of 19 points at 41-22 with just 0:11 gone in the second half. The Owls made it a 10-point game, 53-43, after three quarters before whittling Tulsa's lead down even further and tying the contest with under three minutes left on the furth quarter clock.

For the game, Tulsa converted 42 percent from the field and made 6-of-12 from behind the arc for 50 percent and was 84 percent from the free throw line.

HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE FIRST QUARTER . . .
Tulsa scored the first points of the game on an Ahrray Young layup and after a 2-2 tie went on an 12-0 run for a 14-2 lead.

Both teams lost a key starters in the first period to injuries, Rice's Shelby Hayes and Tulsa's Ahrray Young.

The Hurricane extended its lead to 18-3 at the 3:15 mark before Rice scored the next seven points to make the score 18-10 with 2:05 remaining in the quarter.

The period ended with Tulsa leading 22-10.

Tulsa shot 38.9 percent from the field and made 3-of-4 from three-point range for 75-percent, while the Owls shot 27 percent from the field.

IN THE SECOND QUARTER . . .
The teams scored combined for just 11 points in the first six minutes, Tulsa six and Rice five.

Tulsa led by 16 in the second quarter at the 7:45 mark after two Cam Mathews free throws and at the end of the half with the score sitting at 38-22.

Tulsa was 5-of-7 from three-point range for 71.4 percent and 87.5 percent from the charity stripe on 7-of-8.

Delanie Crawford led all scorers with 18 first-half points on 6-of-11 from the field, 4-of-5 from three-point range and 2-of-2 from the free throw line.

IN THE THIRD QUARTER . . .
Temira Poindexter's tradition 3-point play was the first points of the second half putting Tulsa ahead 41-22 at the 9:49 mark for Tulsa's largest lead of 19 points.

Rice jumped out to a 14-7 advantage in the third period to cut the Tulsa lead to nine points at 45-36 with 4:25 left in the quarter.

The Owls got as close as six points at the 1:40 mark for a 49-43 score on a traditional three-point play by Emily Klaczek.

For the quarter, Rice outscored the Hurricane 21-15, but Tulsa held a 53-43 after three periods.

IN THE FOURTH QUARTER . . .
Rice went on a 9-2 run to start the final quarter and continued chipping away at the Tulsa lead before knotting the score at 63 at the 2:25 mark.

Mady Cartwright's driving layup with 0:48 on the clock put the Hurricane back ahead 65-63.

Rice's Destiny Jackson matched Tulsa's score with a layup of her own for a 65-65 game with 0:41 left on the game clock.

Tulsa converted 5-of-6 free throws in the final 0:29 to claim the five-point win, including 4-of-4 from Crawford.

GAME NOTES
• Tulsa improved to 15-5 on the season and 5-2 in the American Athletic Conference.
• Tulsa is now 11-1 when leading after the first quarter.
• Tulsa led at halftime for the 13^th time this year and now stands at 11-2 in those games.
• Tulsa improved to 6-0 on the season when two players reached 20 points, and five of those have been from Crawford and Poindexter.
• Tulsa came into the game averaging 8.5 made three-pointers while attempting 26 per game … tonight Tulsa converted 6-of-12 treys.
• Junior Delanie Crawford had her 18^th double-figure scoring game of the season and the 44^th of her career with 26 points … she had 18 of her points in the first half.
• It was Crawford's ninth 20+ scoring game of the season and the 10^th of her career.
• Junior Temira Poindexter scored in double-figures for the 20^th game this year and for the 65^th time in 78 career games with 22 points.
• It was her 11^th game this year with 20 points and her 26^th career 20+ scoring game.
• Crawford moved up two spots from 21^st to 19^th on the school's all-time scoring list with 900 career points.
• Freshman Mady Cartwright had her sixth double-digit scoring game of the season with 12 points.
• Poindexter moved up one spot on the school's career field goals made list into a 6^th place tie with 450 career made field goals, after hitting nine shots tonight.

Tulsa travels to American Athletic Conference newcomer Charlotte for a Saturday afternoon contest, tipping off at 3:00 p.m. (CT)/4:00 p.m. (ET). All TU women's basketball games can be heard on 93.5 FM The Jet Radio. All home and away American Athletic Conference games can be viewed on ESPN+.