Tulsa Holds off Montana for 68-58 Win at West Palm Beach Classic

Friday, December 20

West Palm Beach, Fla.

11:00 a.m.

Tulsa

6-5,0-0AAC

Montana

4-7,0-0Big Sky

Montana

Tulsa

Photo by: Ali Zamudio

Tulsa Holds off Montana for 68-58 Win at West Palm Beach Classic

12/20/2024 3:35:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Season Stats (PDF)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Tulsa women's basketball team earned its fourth consecutive victory after holding off Montana's late comeback bid for a 68-58 winner at the West Palm Beach Classic in West Palm Beach, Fla. The Golden Hurricane now has a winning record at 6-5 while the Lady Griz fell to 4-7.

Although the Griz never enjoyed the lead, they came within just three points at 59-56 with 3:57 to go in the game after trailing by as much as 15 points in the third quarter. Senior guard Delanie Crawford halted any potential comeback, scoring six unanswered points in 22 seconds with a three-pointer, a layup and an and-1 free throw with less than two minutes left. Her teammates Kristol Ayson and Paige Bradley took care of Tulsa's free throws when Montana started fouling, sealing a 10-point victory for Tulsa.

Crawford led all scorers with 26 points off 10-23 shooting (43.5%), including 5-15 in treys (33.3%). Ayson was Tulsa's other double-figure shooter with 10 points. Sophomore Elise Hill coordinated the offense with a team-high six assists.

Junior Hadley Periman paved the way for Tulsa with nine boards and three blocks. She led a defense that collected 14 steals as a group.

Both teams shot higher than 40% from the field and over 33% in three-pointers with Montana finishing with a better shooting (46.8%) and free throw mark (87.5%) than Tulsa. The Hurricane, however, shot the ball 15 more times after turning over the Griz on 29 occasions.

"We got a lot of points off turnovers, especially early in the game," Head Coach Angie Nelp said. "I like the way that we came out aggressively. I feel like as the game wore on, we weren't as tight as we needed to be. I think I think we've got a team that plays well and when they can play really aggressively. We stayed out of foul trouble, which was key against this team. We tried to defend the arc and take it away. They didn't get as many three-point attempts as they normally get, but they made more threes than they normally do, so we need to close out a little bit better, but I like the way we carried ourselves and handled the ball.

"[Delanie Crawford] had a great performance. She rebounded well too. I liked the way that she's hunting her shots because sometimes you don't get to have that kind of rhythm against these teams that play you a little bit closer. Even the shots that she missed I felt were good shots off smart passes."

Mack Konig led Montana with 15 points and five assists while her teammate Avery Waddington paced the Griz with nine rebounds to go with 10 points.

HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE FIRST QUARTER . . .
Tulsa scored first when Elise Hill kicked the ball out to an open Delanie Crawford in the corner, who swished the opening basket for three. Paige Bradley stole the ball on the following Griz possession and dumped it off to Mady Cartwright who saw Crawford open again in the corner for the easy three-pointer, forcing a Montana timeout early with 9:06 to play.

Elise Hill got on the board with four points off a pair of fast break free throws and a layup before Bradley took the ball to the basket for two.

Montana's Izabella Zingaro scored five unanswered points to trim the Griz's deficit to two at 12-10 with 4:47 on the clock. Tulsa would continue to hold the lead, pushing ahead with field goals from Hill, Bradley, Jade Clack and Mady Cartwright.

Tulsa's defense held Montana to zero field goals in a 4:23 span to the end of the quarter, allowing just five points off free throws from Dani Bartsch. The Hurricane led 23-17 after the first 10 minutes.

IN THE SECOND QUARTER . . .
Kristol Ayson got things started in the second quarter with a banked three from the top of the key. Delanie Crawford and Hadley Periman each scored a triple to give TU a 10-point lead at 34-24 with the clock reading 6:43.

TU's offense would then slow down a bit as the Hurricane went without a point for 3:50. Montana took advantage with a 7-0 scoring run but failed to capture the lead. Snapping the scoring drought for TU was Crawford who slipped through the Griz defense for the layup at 1:03.

At the half, Tulsa was shooting 35.9% from the field (14-39), 33.3% in threes (6-18) and 50% (3-6) from the line. Montana on the other hand was 55% in field goals (11-20), 50% in treys (3-6) and 85.7% in free throws (6-7).

IN THE THIRD QUARTER . . .
It was all Delanie Crawford early as she opened the second half for Tulsa with a layup. She followed up with her fourth three-pointer of the day and another contested layup to give TU a 44-37 lead at 6:13.

Tulsa's defense held the Griz scoreless from the 7:10 mark to 1:09, turning the ball over six times within that six-minute frame. The Hurricane had 12 steals going into the fourth quarter.

It was a 13-3 scoring run for TU, fueled by five points from Crawford, fast-break layups by Kristol Ayson and two-point field goals by Hadley Periman and Paige Bradley. The score was 53-47 entering the final period.

IN THE FOURTH QUARTER . . .
The fourth quarter started with an exchange of three-pointers, two by each team. From there, Tulsa turned the ball over three times leading to a scoring drought spanning 5:32. Montana brought it to within three points at 59-56 when Mack Konig surpassed 15 points off back-to-back layups to force a TU timeout at 3:55.

Delanie Crawford held off any potential Montana comeback when she nailed her fifth triple of the day to snap the Hurricane's scoring skid. She then added another layup and an and-1 to push Tulsa ahead 65-56 at 1:50.

Tulsa held the Griz to just one score, a field goal at 1:36 while Kristol Ayson and Paige Bradley converted their free throws in the closing seconds of the game, sealing the 10-point victory for the Hurricane at 68-58.

GAME NOTES

In Tulsa's first-ever game against Montana and first contest against a Big Sky opponent, the Hurricane never trailed for the 68-58 victory.
In nonconference regular season events and tournaments, Tulsa improved to 36-34 all-time.
The win over Montana marks the fourth game this season Tulsa never trailed on the way to a team victory.
With the win, Tulsa moves to 5-1 on the season when leading at halftime (37-31), 4-0 when shooting over 40% in FG (40.3%, 25-62), 5-1 when scoring over 65 points (68) and 6-2 when holding opponents under 65 points (58).
Tulsa led 37-31 at the half. It's the second time this season the Hurricane led by that exact score at halftime (Grambling State).
The Hurricane tied its season-high of 14 steals.
Senior Delanie Crawford collected 10 field goals. The last time a TU was player had 10 in a game was Temira Poindexter last season against Temple on Feb. 28, 2024.
Crawford had 26 points, picking up her third 20+ point game of the season and 19^th of her career. It's the 10^th contest this season she's had double-digit points and 69^th of her career.
Senior Kristol Ayson came away with 10 points for her second game this year scoring in double-figures and 12^th in her NCAA career (46^th when counting two seasons at NJCAA Arizona Western).
Junior Hadley Periman tied her season-high of three blocks. That moves her to 94 career rejections, needing one more to pass Kendrian Elliott's (2016-20) 94 blocks for seventh on the all-time TU blocks chart.
Crawford's 26 points moved her to 1,386 career points. She needs 127 points to pass Larrissa Williams' (2006-10) 1,512 points for fifth on the all-time Hurricane points chart.
Crawford had five three-pointers Friday and ranks third for career triples (213) in program history, needing 10 more to pass Kara Pongonis-Paslay's (2002-06) 222 threes.
Crawford stands at No. 6 in the all-time field-goals-made career chart for TU with 473 after recording 10 on Friday. She needs 97 more to pass Temira Poindexter's (2021-24) 569 FG for fifth.

The Hurricane will finish the 2024 nonconference schedule tomorrow at 10 a.m. Central against No. 18/16 Tennessee on the final day of the West Palm Beach Classic.