Four Score in Double-Digits for 77-60 Education Day Win over Grambling State

Thursday, December 5

Tulsa, Okla.

11:00 a.m.

Tulsa

3-5,0-0AAC

Grambling State

2-6,0-0SWAC

Grambling

Tulsa

Photo by: Bill Powell

Four Score in Double-Digits for 77-60 Education Day Win over Grambling State

12/5/2024 4:56:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa women's basketball team enjoyed a strong 17-point victory over Grambling State Thursday morning for a 77-60 victory that was fueled by double-digit points from sophomore Elise Hill (18), senior Delanie Crawford (18), sophomore Mady Cartwright (13) and junior Hadley Periman (12).

The Donald W. Reynolds Center held nearly 2,000 students from the Tulsa Public Schools system, Broken Arrow Public Schools and various private institutions of the greater Tulsa area. The Tulsa women got their third win of the season in front of 3,067 total fans, the seventh-highest home attendance in program history.

The four double-figure scorers for Tulsa accounted for 61 of TU's 77 points and 79% of the team's scoring. Crawford and Hill both led the floor in scoring with Crawford and senior teammate Kristol Ayson paving the way with three steals and Hill pacing the Hurricane with five assists.

Periman led the squad in rebounds for the first time this season with eight boards. Five Hurricane finished with five or more rebounds, including Periman (8), Cartwright (7), Hill (6), Ayson (5) and Crawford (5). Periman also recorded three blocks for a second consecutive game.

Tulsa had its best shooting game of the year so far with a 44.3% mark from the field (27-61) and a 34.8% tally from three-point land (8-23), while holding the Lady Tigers to opponent season-lows of 26.3% in field goals (21-80) and 15.4% triples (2-13). It was the first time this season that the Hurricane shot over 40% in a game.

Tulsa also moved to 3-1 on the year when out-rebounding opponents. Thursday's final mark ended in the Hurricane's favor 50-44 and led by just one board (27-26) at halftime.

"I'm really proud of the way that our team played today," Head Coach Angie Nelp said. "Offensively, it's easy to see the way that we shared the ball and the assists that we had, and the way that we were playing with a lot of rhythm and flow. And then defensively, I felt like in the first half, we let the boards get away from us a little bit, but I was proud of our team's fight and growth in the second half to not give up those same rebounds that we did. It was really fun to see so many players on our team in double-figures. We had four in double-figures. It was really good to see Elise Hill have that game where she was distributing and scoring for us, and the way that she opened the game hitting those threes in the beginning helped us get off to a really great start. You see Delanie Crawford scoring from coming from off of cuts and ball screens and being able to showcase a few more dimensions of her scoring ability. And then Hadley Periman coming on strong for us. And that second half was huge. And Mady Cartwright, the way that she was able to help us was definitely a positive for us. We turned the ball over a little bit more than we would like, and I think that's part of having a young team and needing to continue to grow and continue to get better. It's certainly fun to see our team and get more rhythm and more flow together."

Grambling State's Douthsine Prien finished with a team-leading 12 points, and Alyssa Phillip recorded 14 rebounds, including five on offense.

HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE FIRST QUARTER . . .
The Lady Tigers scored first and enjoyed their only lead of the day for 24 seconds before Elise Hill's opening three captured the lead for Tulsa for good.

Tulsa held Grambling State 13% shooting off a 3-23 mark and a 0-4 tally from beyond the arc.

Hill had an outstanding first quarter, making three triples and coming down with four boards to get the team going early on.

IN THE SECOND QUARTER . . .
Tulsa enjoyed a 7-0 scoring run off a three and a fast break layup by Mady Cartwright and a turnaround jumper by Kennedi Alexander to go up 33-19 at 4:18.

Then, Grambling enjoyed a 7-0 run of its own thanks in part to no TU field goals for a three-minute stretch that included four turnovers. Tulsa led by six at 37-31 entering halftime.

The second quarter was almost all Cartwright as she finished with nine points and five rebounds in the period.

At the half, Tulsa was shooting 42.4% in field goals (14-33), 43.8% in threes (7-16) and 66.7% in free throws (2-3). The Lady Tigers were 24.4% from the field (11-45), 20% in treys (2-10) and 70% in free throws (7-10).

IN THE THIRD QUARTER . . .
The third quarter was Tulsa's best offensive and defensive effort, scoring 20 and holding the Tigers to just 10 points.

A 10-0 scoring run helped push TU ahead by as many as 17 points at 52-35 before closing out the quarter on top 57-41.

Tulsa stole the ball four times and scored six points off turnovers and five off fast breaks. Hadley Periman led the way with seven points with Delanie Crawford right behind with six points.

The defense held Grambling State to just 4-18 from the field.

IN THE FOURTH QUARTER . . .
The Hurricane enjoyed another 20-point quarter in the fourth to close out the 17-point win at 77-60. In the final frame, both teams stole the ball five times with Elise Hill tacking on six more points.

TU went 7-12 from the field for 58.3% shooting in the quarter. Only three three-pointers were attempted between the two teams in the frame, none of which fell through the net.

GAME NOTES

Tulsa remains undefeated against Grambling State, moving to 4-0 in the series.
TU moved to 16-1 all-time against SWAC teams.
The Hurricane is now 3-2 at home in the Donald W. Reynolds Center this season … Tulsa improved to 18-4 at home since the start of last season, 29-8 since 2022-23 and 37-13 under fourth-year head coach Angie Nelp.
The Reynolds Center was filled with 3,067 fans for Education Day for the 7^th-highest attended TU women's basketball in program history.
Tulsa got its first win of the season over a team with a higher NET ranking (Tulsa: 257, Grambling: 196).
The Hurricane finished a game above 40% field goal shooting for the first time this season.
TU improved to 3-1 when out-rebounding the opponent … Tulsa had 50 boards to Grambling's 44.
30 turnovers were committed by Tulsa on Thursday, the most committed in a game by the Hurricane since Dec. 12, 2009, against Oral Roberts, when TU committed 30 in an overtime loss, 74-69.
This is the first time Tulsa has ever won a game after committing 30 or more turnovers.
Sophomore Elise Hill tied her career-high of 18 points for her sixth game scoring in double-figures this season and ninth of her career.
Senior Delanie Crawford's 18 points marks her seventh double-digit point game this year and 66^th of her career.
Junior Hadley Periman led the floor in blocks for a third time with three stuffs and had a season-best 12 points for her first game of the season scoring over 10 points and second career game scoring in double-figures.
Periman's three blocks move her to 89 career rejections … she needs six more to pass Kendrian Elliott's (2016-20) 94 blocks to move to seventh on the all-time TU blocks chart.
Sophomore Mady Cartwright enjoyed another productive game with 13 points, her third game in 2024-25 scoring in double-digits and 13^th time of her career.
Delanie Crawford is now eighth in TU program history for career points (1,333), passing Kasie Pittman's (1996-00) 1,322 points … Crawford needs 12 points to pass Kelsee Grovey's (2012-16) 1,344 points for sixth on the all-time Hurricane points chart.
Crawford ranks third for career three-pointers (203) in program history and needs 20 more to pass Kara Pongonis-Paslay's (2002-06) 222 threes.
Crawford also moved ahead to No. 7 in the all-time field-goals-made chart for TU with 452 after recording seven field goals Thursday, passing Kasie Pittman's (1996-00) 450 field goals … Crawford needs 11 more field goals to pass Kasie Pittman's (1996-00) 462 field goals.

The Hurricane will return to action on the road when they face San Jose State (6-3) on Tuesday, Dec. 10, at 8 p.m. Central. The game can be viewed on the Mountain West Network.