Tulsa
1-3,0-0AAC
Georgia
4-2,0-0SEC
Tulsa Outpaced by Georgia in Opening Game of State Farm WBCA Showcase
11/21/2024 8:22:00 PM | Women's Basketball
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Another slow start doomed the 1-3 Tulsa women's basketball team as the Golden Hurricane fell 60-44 to Georgia (4-2) in the opening game of the 2024 State Farm WBCA Showcase.
Senior Delanie Crawford paced the Hurricane with 14 points and nine rebounds. She went 5-for-5 from the free throw line and stole the ball once. Georgia's De'Mauri Flournoy (19 points) and Asia Avinger (13 points) led the way for an efficient Bulldog offense that shot 42.6% from the field (23-54).
Tulsa was held to zero field goals in the first quarter, scoring only off six free throws while the Bulldogs put up 18 points and led the Hurricane 41-20 going into halftime. Although TU outscored Georgia 24-19 in the second half, it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit.
Rebounds continue to be a struggle for TU as Georgia won the board battle by 18, finishing with 47 to Tulsa's 29.
"When we started the game, we certainly wanted to come out punching a bit quicker," Head Coach Angie Nelp said. "The game got slowed down pretty fast. They were going to start a couple bigs, and we felt we wanted to run through their team in transition, but unfortunately, we were not able to get our transition game going as quickly as we wanted to. We've got to be able to play through them. We've got to be able to create the tempo that we want to create straight from the jump. We had some missed layups and some missed open shots. I felt like some things that were right there just didn't fall for us early. We have got to come back next possession and punch it again no matter what."
HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE FIRST QUARTER . . .
Georgia scored first with a free throw from Amiya Evans at 8:56, and followed up with a layup at 8:00. Tulsa was held scoreless through the first three minutes of the game until the Bulldogs fouled Delanie Crawford on a mid-range jumper at 6:58, sending her to the line for two free throws, of which she made both.
Consecutive three-pointers by the Bulldogs would move the needle further in favor of Georgia at 9-2 with 4:35 left in the first quarter when the first media timeout hit.
Although Georgia turned the ball over four times in a 3:44 stretch, TU couldn't find ways to capitalize early. Elise Hill got herself to the line for one made free throw and Delanie Crawford added two more at the stripe at 2:03 to cut the deficit to eight at 13-5.
Georgia made one more three, and Mady Cartwright added one more point on a free throw before the quarter expired with the Bulldogs up 18-6 after 10 minutes.
Tulsa went 0-14 from the field, including 0-7 in threes. The Hurricane scored all its points off 6-of-8 free throws.
IN THE SECOND QUARTER . . .
Tulsa's first field goal of the game came off the fingertips of Mady Cartwright, who drove the ball to the basket for the layup at 9:35 in the second quarter. On the following possession, Elise Hill scored Tulsa's first three on the team's ninth attempt from deep.
Georgia utilized an 8-0 scoring run to go up 29-11 before Mady Cartwright scored from beyond the arc and Hadley Periman made a layup to move TU to 16 points.
A Paige Bradley layup with a made and-1 made it a 36-19 contest before a 5-0 scoring run by Georgia put the Bulldogs up by 21 points 41-19. Jade Clack sank a free throw with 20 seconds left to end the first half at 41-20.
At the break, Tulsa was shooting 18.5% from the field (5-27), 16.7% from three-point land (2-12) and 72.7% in free throws (8-11), while Georgia was hitting 43.8 percent of its shots (14-32), 46.7% in three-pointers (7-15) and 40% in points from the charity line (6-15).
IN THE THIRD QUARTER . . .
The first points of the second half came at 8:12 in the third when Georgia's Amiya Evans scored on a layup in the paint. Delanie Crawford got TU on the board when she swished a jumper at 7:16.
Georgia grabbed its largest lead thus far at 25 points when Asia Avinger recorded a pair of consecutive fast-break layups to move the Bulldogs up 47-22.
Neither team scored for another 90 seconds until Tulsa went on a big scoring run of nine points off a pair of layups by Jade Clack, a layup from McKayla Miller and a corner three by Lexie Foutch, making it a 47-31 ballgame at 2:01. All nine points were scored off Bulldog turnovers.
A pair of Georgia layups with less than 40 seconds left locked up the score at 51-31 heading into the fourth and final frame.
IN THE FOURTH QUARTER . . .
Tulsa utilized another scoring run to cut into the deficit. The 8-0 run was fueled by a jumper from Kristol Ayson and six points by Delanie Crawford resulting from a three-pointer, layup and an and-1 free throw. The score was 55-41 when the media timeout hit.
From 5:06 onward, Georgia answered back every Tulsa score to hold off any potential comebacks, finishing the game on top 60-44.
Tulsa finished 28.8% in field goals (15-52), including 16.7% in three-pointers (4-24), and 62.5% from the line (10-16). Georgia made 42.6% of its shots, which included 7-19 three-pointers for 36.8% while going 7-19 in free throw (36.8%).
GAME NOTES
· The Tulsa-Georgia game kicked off the inaugural 2024 State Farm WBCA Showcase, the first women's college basketball event in the State Farm Field House on the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex since 2000.
· Senior Delanie Crawford notched her third double-figure scoring game of the season and 62nd of her career with a team-leading 14 points.
· It's the third game this season Crawford has led the team in points.
· Kennedi Alexander, a true freshman, made her first appearance for the Golden Hurricane.
· Lexie Foutch recorded her first career three-pointer.
· Brooklyn Alexander scored her first career point in the closing seconds of the game.
· Hadley Periman got her first start this season … she brought down seven boards.
· Senior Delanie Crawford's 14 points move her to 1,249 career points, ranking ninth on the all-time TU scoring chart ‚ she needs 52 points to pass Lila Osceola's (1996-00) 1,301 points.
· TU was held to 20 points in the first half … the Hurricane has now been held to 20 or fewer points in a half in back-to-back games (20 in 1st half vs. Georgia; 17 in 1st half vs. Oral Roberts) for the first time since the 2020-21 season, when Tulsa was held to 20 in the first halves against South Florida (Feb. 13) and Temple (Feb. 17).
· TU was outrebounded by 18 boards, 47-29.
· Tulsa never had a chance to grab a lead as the Hurricane went 0-14 from the field, 0-7 from three and 6-8 in free throws in the first quarter.
· The Hurricane won the turnover battle for the third time this year, losing the ball 18 times and stealing it nine times while Georgia turned it over 23 times and had eight steals.
· Tulsa is 1-3 for the first time since the start of the 2020-21 season.
The Hurricane will wrap up the State Farm WBCA Showcase on Saturday, Nov. 23, against Marshall (1-3) at 11 a.m. Central. The game will air on NBC Sports FAST Channel, which is distributed to Peacock, Roku Channel, Amazon Fire TV, PlutoTV, Samsung TV Plus, XUMO and Freevee.
