Tulsa Comeback Stuns Wichita State 79-68

Wednesday, January 31

6:00 PM

Tulsa

12-8,3-5AAC

Wichita State

9-12,1-7AAC

Wichita St.

Tulsa

Photo by: Bill Powell

Tulsa Comeback Stuns Wichita State 79-68

1/31/2024 9:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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TULSA, Okla. –– Tulsa overcame a 15-point deficit for a 79-68 victory over Wichita State in front of an energetic crowd of 5,028 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center Wednesday night.

PJ Haggerty and Cobe Williams led the way for Tulsa with 23 and 21 points, respectively, while Tyshawn Archie added 10 points. Wichita State had five players in double-figures with Colby Rogers 13 points leading the way.

"That was a great college basketball environment. I know it's a game that had a lot of historical significance from the number of games played over the history of our two programs," said Tulsa Head Coach Eric Konkol. "I want to thank our Tulsa fans, because even with the earlier start, people just really showed up. To hear the 'Go TU' chants and everything else, those are the type of things that we're really excited about and really thankful for."

The two teams met for the 141^st time since the first meeting in 1930, as the series stands as the longest in Golden Hurricane school history.

After being outscored 43-32 for the first 20 minutes, Tulsa had a 22-point advantage over the Shockers in the second half, 47-25, for the 11-point win.

Tulsa (12-8, 3-5 AAC) outscored the Shockers 13-2 over the final 2:24 for the win
The Hurricane trailed by 11 points at halftime and opened the second half on a 13-2 run to tie the game for the first time since the 15:52 mark of the opening period with just over 13 minutes remaining in the contest.

Cobe Williams three-pointer made it a 45-45 score at the 13:35 mark. Wichita State (9-12, 1-7 AAC) responded with two points before Haggerty's two free throws tied the game again at 47. The Shockers retook the lead and retained it until Haggerty hit a three-pointer for a 64-63 lead with 4:37 on the clock. A traditional three-point play by Ronnie DeGray put the visitor's back ahead at 66-64.

Williams driving layup made it 66-all with 3:54 remaining. Jared Garcia's put-back off a Haggerty miss and foul put Tulsa ahead 69-66. DeGray made it a one-point game, 69-68, with a layup. Williams made 1-of-2 free throws before Isaiah Barnes' three-pointer with 0:53 left put Tulsa ahead 73-68.

Haggerty made 6-of-6 free throws in the final 0-32 as the Hurricane held the Shockers from scoring in the final two minutes.

"This game really came down to PJ (Haggerty) and his teammates locking in and defending in the second half," Konkol said. "We gave up 1.34 (points per possession) – credit Wichita State for the tenacity they came out with. But our guys held to them a 0.71 in the second half. It came down to that toughness. PJ diving on the floor, Isaiah (Barnes) had another one. You look at the stat sheet, a number of different things, but I thought our energy and intensity was so much better in the second half, and we came away with a conference win."

The Shockers led by 15 at the 1:15 mark of the first half and ended the first 20 minutes with a 43-32 lead. Wichita State converted 58 percent from the field and 42 percent from three-point range in the first half, while tallying 28 of its first-half points in the paint and its remaining 15 points from behind the arc.

Dalen Ridgnal led the Shockers with 11 points, while Williams led the Hurricane with 10 first-half points.

For the game, Wichita State held a 48-to-20 advantage for points scored in the paint, while the Hurricane connected on 20-of-24 free throws. WSU had a slight edge in field goal shooting, 46-to-44 percent, while Tulsa made 11-of-27 treys to WSU's 6-of-21, and only 1-of-9 in the second half for the Shockers.

HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE FIRST HALF . . .
Tulsa jumped out to an 8-2 lead, before the Shockers went on a 14-2 run to take a 15-10 lead at the first media timeout.

WSU shot 67-percent in the first 5:37 of the contest while the Hurricane netted 44 percent of its field goals.

The Shockers extended its lead to 24-14 in the next 3:02.

Tulsa got as close as six points at 28-22 with 8:58 remaining in the first half before the Shockers pushed its lead back to double digits at 34-22 with 5:44 on the clock.

Wichita State had its largest lead of 15 points sat the 1:15 mark and ended the half ahead by 11 at intermission after PJ Haggerty scored the final four points of the half to make it 43-32.

IN THE SECOND HALF . . .
Tulsa scored the first seven points of the half to cut its halftime deficit to four points at 43-39 with just under four minutes gone in the half.

WSU was scoreless in the first 5:16 of the second half until a three-pointer by Xavier Bell made the score 45-39 at the 14:44 mark.

Cobe Williams' third trey of the game tied the score at 45-45 at the 13:17 mark, the first tie game since 10-10 at the 15:52 mark of the first half.

After another tie at 47-47, Wichita State kept a lead between one and four points for the next 6:40 before going up by six points, 63-57.

PJ Haggerty scored seven straight points on four free throws and a three-pointer to give Tulsa a 64-63 lead.

From that point, Tulsa went on to outscore the Shockers 15-5 in the final 4:37 and 10-0 in the final 1:48, on an Isaiah Barnes trey and 7-of-8 from the charity stripe.

GAME NOTES
• Tulsa improved to 12-8 overall on the season overall and 3-5 in AAC games.
• This was the 141^st meeting between the two schools, the longest series in school history for Tulsa and third-longest for Wichita State.
• Tonight was the second time Tulsa wore gold uniforms this year … the previous game was at home against UTSA … Tulsa is now 2-0 in gold uniforms.
• Tulsa has now won back-to-back regular season AAC games for the first time since the 2020-21 season when Tulsa won four straight from Dec. 21 to Jan. 6.
• Tulsa had double-digit three-pointers made for the ninth time this year and the fourth time in the last five games.
• Cobe Williams had his 16^th double-digit scoring game of the season and the 69^th of his career with 21 points … it was also his eighth straight double-figure scoring game.
• It was Williams second 20+ scoring game of the season and 15^th of his career.
• Williams had his 10^th straight game with multiple three-pointers made with three tonight.
• Freshman redshirt PJ Haggerty had his 19th double-figure scoring game of the season and his 15^th straight with 23 points.
• It was Haggerty's 11th game this season with 20+ points and 8^th time in the last nine games.
• Freshman Tyshawn Archie had his ninth double-figure scoring game of the year and third in the last four games with 10 points.
• Junior Jared Garcia has totaled 10 blocks in the last three games, including a game-high three blocked shots tonight.

Tulsa goes on the road for a Saturday afternoon game against the nation's No. 20-ranked FAU Owls. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. (ET)/ 5:00 p.m. (CT). The game can be seen on ESPN+. All Tulsa basketball games can be heard on Big Country 99.5 FM Radio.