Tulsa Basketball Welcomes Mississippi Valley State

GAME #12: Tulsa (4-7, 0-0 AAC) vs. Mississippi Valley State (2-9, 0-0 SWAC)
Date/Time:	Saturday • December 21, 2024 • 1:00 p.m. (CT)
Site:	Donald W. Reynolds Center (8,355) • Tulsa, Okla.
Coaches:	Tulsa – Eric Konkol (Wisconsin-Eau Claire, '00), 3rd Season MVSU – George Ivory (MVSU '88), 3rd Season
TV:	ESPN+ \| Chad McKee (PxP) and Pooh Williamson (Analyst)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM / Varsity Sports App (Bruce Howard & JR Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	5th Meeting \| Tulsa Leads Series 4-0
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Notes:	Tulsa Notes \| The American Notes

TULSA, Okla. –– With the conference season on the horizon, the University of Tulsa welcomes Mississippi Valley State to the Donald W. Reynolds Center for a pre-Christmas matchup on Saturday afternoon.

Tipoff for the nonconference penultimate game is set for 2 p.m. (CT) and will air on ESPN+ with Chad McKee and Pooh Williamson on the call. Fans can also catch the contest on Big Country 99.5 FM and the Varsity Network app. Bruce Howard will bring fans the action alongside analyst JR Rollo.

Tulsa (4-7) has won the four previous matchups in the series against Mississippi Valley State (2-9), all home games for the Hurricane. The previous three have been played in the Reynolds Center, including last season's 79-50 win.

The Hurricane is looking to snap a four-game skid, its longest losing streak of the season. TU fell to UCF 88-75 in the Orange Bowl Classic last Saturday after the Knights outscored the Hurricane 14-5 in the final four minutes to pull away.

Keaston Willis led Tulsa with 22 points, aided by six 3-pointers. It was his ninth game this season with multiple triples, and fourth where he's made five or more from long range. He is shooting better than 42 percent on deep balls, including better than 50 percent over the last four games, where he's connected on 18 3-pointers. He is second in the conference for 3-point percentage (42.9), and third in total threes (33) and threes per game (3.0).

Dwon Odom continues to score and shoot at a high rate, scoring 20 points in the loss to UCF. He is second on the team in scoring (13.3) behind Willis (14.5). While his 51.7 percent field goal shooting is tops on the team and 34^th nationally among guards.

Mississippi Valley State has faced one of the toughest schedules in the country. Under the direction of third year head coach George Ivory, MVSU has faced road contests at Iowa State, Missouri, Texas, Kansas State, BYU, Utah, UCSB, Liberty and most recently, North Texas. The Delta Devils are the only team in the country who has not played a quad three or four game this season. The tough schedule has led to some lopsided losses as MVSU has been outscored 911-572 on the season, averaging
out to 82.8 - 52.0 per contest.

Arthur Tate leads the team in scoring, averaging 11.3 points per game. Alvin Stredic is second on the team in scoring, putting up 9.3 points alongside a team-high 4.7 rebounds. Donovan Sanders scores 9.2 a game and is third on the team before a four-point dropoff to the next leading scorer.

Following Saturday's contest, the Golden Hurricane will have a week off which includes the Christmas holiday before hosting Southwestern Christian in the Reynolds Center for the nonconference finale on Saturday, December 28. Tipoff against the Eagles is set for 4 p.m. (CT).

Tulsa Basketball Welcomes Mississippi Valley State

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Players Mentioned

Dwon Odom

Keaston Willis