Tulsa’s Comeback Falls Short Against No. 15 Memphis 78-75

Thursday, January 4

7:00 PM

Tulsa

9-4,0-1AAC

Memphis

12-2,1-0AAC

Memphis

Tulsa

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

Tulsa’s Comeback Falls Short Against No. 15 Memphis 78-75

1/4/2024 10:59:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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TULSA, Okla. –– Tulsa's comeback bid against the nation's 15^th-ranked Memphis Tigers fell short, 78-75, Thursday night in front of season-high 4,226 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Trailing by 14 points at halftime, Tulsa cut its deficit to eight in the first two minutes and kept battling throughout the second half, outscoring Memphis 40-29. A Cobe Williams three-pointer with 0:33 remaining knotted the score at 75. It was the first tie since the 11:52 mark of the first half.

After a Tulsa timeout, the Tigers used most of the clock before Jahvon Quinerly knocked down a three-pointer at the 0:04 mark for the three-point advantage. Tulsa's Williams took the ball the distance trying to tie the game with his last second three-point attempt.

Tulsa trailed for all but 1:25 of the game but battled to the very end.

"I'm proud of our team for the number of times they could have said, 'Hey, this is not our night. This is a really good team and we're young and maybe we're not ready for this, yet.' But they just kept pushing, and they kept finding a way to give ourselves a chance. We tied the game there late and hats off to (Jahvon) Quinerly for making a great shot and winning the ballgame for them," said Tulsa Head Coach Eric Konkol. "We have some things we absolutely need to work on, and that's part of this process. But I love coaching this group and I'm looking forward to practice tomorrow and trying to get ready for the next one."

Memphis improved to 12-2 and grabbed its first win of the American Athletic Conference season, while Tulsa fell to 9-4 overall and 0-1 in league play. The loss snapped a nine-game home winning streak for the Hurricane.

PJ Haggerty led all scorers with 27 points, one off his season best, while Carlous Williams scored a season-high 16 points and Cobe Williams followed with 10, including five of those coming in the final 0:36.

David Jones and Nae'Qwan Tomlin led five Memphis players in double-figures with 17 points apiece.

After shooting a sizzling 64 percent from the field in the first half, Memphis cooled down in the second 20 minutes, shooting just 38 percent. The Hurricane boosted its field goal percentage from 37.5 percent to 47 percent in the second half.

Memphis had the advantage for points scored in the paint 40-22, while Tulsa scored 21 points off of 21 Tiger turnovers.

HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE FIRST HALF . . .
Tulsa's PJ Haggerty scored the first two points of the game on a driving layup.

The lead changed hands seven times in the first 4:46 before Memphis took a 15-9 lead at the 14:02 mark.

Tulsa cut its deficit to one point at 21-20 on two Tyshawn Archie free throws at the 11:23 mark, before the Tigers went on a 12-0 run, making the score 33-20 as Tulsa went scoreless for a 4:49 stretch.

Haggerty's three-pointer at the 6:21 mark ended Tulsa's drought, cutting the Hurricane deficit to 10 points at 33-23.

Isaiah Barnes slam dunk made it a 5-point game at 36-20, but Memphis' Jaykwon Walton quickly put the Tigers back ahead by eight with a trey.

Tyshawn Archie's three-pointer cut Tulsa's deficit back to five points, 38-33, with 4:45 left in the first half.

After Tulsa cut the Memphis lead to five, the Tigers closed the half on an 11-2 run for a 49-35 halftime lead.

Memphis shot 64 percent from the field, making 16-of-25 field goals, while Tulsa converted on just 37.5 percent overall.

Haggerty led all scorers at the intermission with 17 points, while Memphis was led by David Jones' 10 points.

IN THE SECOND HALF . . .
Back-to-back three-pointers by Jared Garcia and Cobe Williams in the first 1:46 cut Tulsa's halftime deficit to eight points at 49-41.

After Memphis pushed the lead back to 11 points a Carlous Williams' trey made it an eight-point game again at the 15:55 mark and less than a minute later his second consecutive three-pointer made it a seven-point game at 54-47.

Consecutive three-pointers, the first by Matt Reed and second by Haggerty, made it a three-point game at 56-53 at the 12:18 mark. It was Tulsa's closest margin since the 10:29 mark of the first half when Tulsa trailed 23-20.

But, Memphis responded and pushed the lead back to 11 points with 9:15 remaining on the game clock.

There was no quit in the Tulsa team as the Hurricane cut its deficit to three points, 56-53 at the 12:18 mark.

After Memphis built its lead back to double digits at 65-54, the Hurricane cut it back to three points nearly seven minutes later as Haggerty's two-pointer in the paint made the score 71-68 with 2:27 remaining.

At 1:03, Memphis's Nick Jourdain's follow-up dunk made it a seven-point game at 75-68.
Cobe Williams cut Tulsa's deficit to 75-70 on a jumper, Carlous Williams' layup made it 75-72 before Cobe's trey tied it up at 0:33.

Memphis milked the clock until Jahvon Quinerly knocked down the game-winning three-pointer at the 0:04 mark.

GAME NOTES
• Tulsa fell to 9-4 on the season.
• The loss snapped a nine-game home winning streak for the Hurricane.
• This was the fifth of a five-game homestand for the Hurricane, the longest of the season.
• Freshman PJ Haggerty had his 12th double-figure scoring game of the season with 27 points to lead Tulsa for double digit scoring games.
• Haggerty scored 11 of his points in the first 9:08 of the contest and 17 in the first half.
• It was Haggerty's sixth game this season and third straight with 20+ points.
• Carlous Williams had his fourth double-figure scoring game of the season
• He made 4-of-6 three-pointers in the game after coming into the contest just 3-of-15 on the season.
• Cobe Williams had his ninth double-digit scoring game of the season and the 62 of his career.

Tulsa takes a two-game road trip to the state of North Carolina for meetings against East Carolina (Jan. 7) and Charlotte (Jan. 10). Both games can be seen on ESPN+. All Tulsa basketball games can be heard on Big Country 9.5 FM Radio.