TULSA HOSTS ARKANSAS TONIGHT IN WBIT FIRST ROUND

GAME 33:
TULSA (23-9, 13-5 AAC) vs. ARKANSAS (18-14, 6-10 AAC)
Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT) • First Round
Monday • March 21, 2024 • 6:30 p.m. (CT)
Donald W. Reynolds Center (8,355) • Tulsa, Okla.

RADIO: 93.5 The Jet
LIVE STATS: Click Here
TV: ESPN+
TICKETS: Click Here
GAME NOTES: Tulsa I Arkansas
WBIT DIGITAL PROGRAM: Click Here

THE COACHES:
Tulsa: Angie Nelp (Colorado State '02), 3^rd year
Career Record: 57-33 (3 years)
School Record: same

Arkansas: Mike Neighbors (Arkansas'93), 7^th year
Career Record: 236-132 (11 years)
School Record: 138-91 (7 years)

Tulsa's Probable Starters
0    G     Katia Gallegos, 5-7, Sr-1L, El Paso, Texas, 6.6 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 2.7 apg
2    F      Temira Poindexter, 6-1, Jr-2L, Sapulpa, Okla., 21.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg
5    G     Delanie Crawford, 5-11, Jr-2L, Piedmont, Okla., 19.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg
21 F      Hadley Periman, 6-2, So-1L, Tuttle, Okla., 2.9 ppg, 7.1 rpg
22 G     Mady Cartwright, 5-10, Fr-HS, Greenwood, Ark., 6.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg

Arkansas' Probable Starters
2    G     Samara Spencer, 5-7, Jr, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 14.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 3.5 apg
23 G     Carly Keats, 5-8, So., Choctaw, Miss., 6.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg
30 F      Maryam Dauda, 6-2, So-RS, Bentonville, Ark., 9.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg
34 F      Jenna Lawrence, 6-3, Fr., Farmington, Ark., 2.1 ppg, 2.2 rpg
43 G     Makayla Daniels, 5-8, Gr., Frederick, Md., 11.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 2.7 apg

Tulsa Makes Postseason for Seventh Time
•    Tulsa will be making its seventh postseason appearance in school history, posting an overall 3-6 record.
•    Tulsa earned the WBIT bid by winning the American Athletic Conference regular season championship.
•    In the postseason, Tulsa has played in two NCAA Tournaments (2006, 2013) and four times in the WNIT (2004, 2005, 2015 and 2022).
•    Tulsa is 1-2 in NCAA play and 2-4 in the WNIT.
•    In NCAA play, Tulsa defeated 5-seed NC State 71-61 in its first-ever NCAA Tournament game, but in second round action lost to host and #4-seed DePaul 71-67 in 2006.
•    In WNIT action, Tulsa's first postseason action was against Memphis, falling 66-64 on the road in 2004 … in remaining WNIT play, Tulsa defeated Missouri State (2015) and North Texas (2022), and fell to Texas A&M (2005), Eastern Michigan (2015) and Wyoming (2022).
•    This is Tulsa's second postseason appearance under Angie Nelp, as she led the Hurricane to the WNIT in her first season (2021-22) and claimed a first-round. win over North Texas (75-62) before falling in three OTs at Wyoming (97-90)

Facing Arkansas
•       This is the 28^th meeting between Tulsa and Arkansas.
•       The Lady Razorbacks lead the overall series 24-3 and have won the last five meetings, including last year's 79-70 win in Fayetteville.
•       Tulsa won the first-ever meeting between the two schools on Jan. 15, 1977, by a score of 55-47, in Tulsa.
•       The only other two Hurricane wins came on Dec. 1, 2005 (66-64) and Nov. 23, 2015 (74-65). Both games in Fayetteville.
•       Arkansas has a 13-1 record in Tulsa and 11-2 in Fayetteville.
•       Arkansas is the third SEC opponent Tulsa has faced this year … the Hurricane fell to #25 Mississippi State in a neutral site game and defeated Florida by a score of 72-64 at home.

Tulsa Captures Regular Season AAC Championship
•       After being picked 7^th in the American' Athletic Conference preseason poll, Tulsa posted a 13-5 AAC mark and tied North Texas for the regular season championship.
•       Tulsa claimed the No. 1 seed in The American's postseason tournament by virtue of a 79-74 home win over North Texas, however, Tulsa fell in the quarterfinal round 75-71 to defending AAC postseason champion East Carolina.
•       Tulsa began the year 2-2 and then posted an 11-3 record the remainder of the league season.
•       During the year, Tulsa defeated first-place North Texas on Feb. 4 at home and went on the road Feb. 28 to defeat first-place Temple.

Tulsa's Poindexter & Crawford Get Top AAC Honors
•    Tulsa's dynamic junior duo of Temira Poindexter and Delanie Crawford were recognized for their play this year by American Athletic Conference coaches.
•    Poindexter was named the AAC's PLAYER OF THE YEAR and Crawford was named the AAC's MOST IMPROVED PLAYER.
•    Poindexter was a first-team all-conference selection for the second consecutive season.
•    Crawford was also named to the AAC's second team this year.

The American's Player of the Year
•    Temira Poindexter was named the AAC's Player of the Year giving Tulsa its first American Athletic Conference Player of the Year in the school's 10-year membership.
•    She is just the second player in school history to be named the Conference Player of the Year in women's basketball … Jillian Robbins (2003-07) was the first as she was named the 2006 Conference USA Player of the Year.
•    In her career, Poindexter has racked up the honors, earning Player of the Year (2024), Freshman of the Year (2022), two-time first-team all-conference (2023, '24), all-freshman team (2022), Freshman of the Week nine times (2022), AAC Player of the Week three times (2023) and has been named to the AAC weekly honor roll 10 times (2021-24).

The American's Most Improved Player
•    Delanie Crawford was picked by the league's coaches as the 2024 Most Improved Player.
•    She was also named second-team all-conference, adding to her all-freshman team honor from 2022.
•    Crawford has been named Player of the Week once this year and named to the weekly honor roll six times.
•    Here's a comparison of Crawford's numbers, this season compared to last year…
      Category                     2023-24                  2022-23
      Points                         610 (19.1)               334 (11.1)
      Rebounds                    186 (5.8)                 144 (4.8)
      Assists                         87 (2.7)                   90 (3.0)
      Steals                          35 (1.1)                   24 (0.8)
      FG%                            .439 (201-458)        .462 (117-253)
      3PT%                          .391 (88-225)          .368 (51-134)
      FT%                            .833 (120-144)        .778 (49-63)
      10+ pt games              30                          18
      20+ pt games              14                          1
      Double-Doubles          5                            1
      10+ Rebounds             5                            1

Fastbreak Points
• This is only the second 20-win season in school history, and only the ninth winning seasons in 39 years of the basketball program.
•   The Hurricane has made 10+ three-pointers in a total of 12 games this season, including five of the last seven games and in 10 of 18 AAC regular season games.
•     Tulsa has reached over 17 wins for the third straight year, all under Angie Nelp … the previous two seasons Tulsa finished the season with 17 wins.
• Tulsa is 14-3 when leading after the first quarter and 17-4 when leading at halftime.
• Tulsa is 5-5 when trailing at halftime.
• The Hurricane is 9-0 when two players reach 20 points in the same game, including 8-0 when the two players are Delanie Crawford and Temira Poindexter.
• In Angie Nelp's three seasons, Tulsa has knocked down double-digit three-pointers in 36 of 90 games, including – nine in 2021-22, 15 in 2022-23 and 12 this year.
•   With a 57-33 coaching record, Nelp has won the most games of any Tulsa coach in their first three seasons.
• Tulsa's 57 wins in the last three years is the second-most in a three-year stretch, behind 64 wins from 2003-06.

23 Wins, 13 at Home
•    Tulsa's 23 wins is the second-most in school history behind a 26-6 record in the 2005-06 season.
•    Tulsa finished the home season 13-1 for the best home mark in school history
•    The Hurricane has had two other one-loss seasons at home, including 12-1 in 2004-05 and 11-1 in 2005-06.
•    Tulsa's 13 conference wins ties for the most in school history, tying Tulsa's 13 Conference USA wins (13-3) in 2005-06 … the 13 AAC wins is one better than the previous-high in the AAC when Tulsa won 12 games in the 2014-15 season.
•    Tulsa has now posted three-straight winning seasons, the second-most in school history behind four straight winning seasons from 2001-06.

A Closer Look into Tulsa's Run to the AAC Regular Season Title
•    In Tulsa's 13 AAC wins, the Hurricane averaged 76.1 points (989), while holding the opposition to 65.8 points (855) for a 10.3-win margin.
•     Tulsa shot 44.2% from the field (341-771), 40.4% from 3-point range (141-349) and 72.2% from the free throw line (166-230) in its wins.
•    In the five losses, Tulsa shot just 35.5% (97-273) from the field, 23.1% from 3-point range (28-121) and 58.8% from the free throw line (57-97).
•    Tulsa had season-highs in AAC play of 55.4% from the field vs. SMU (3/2), 61.9% from 3-point range vs. SMU (3/2) and an .875 free throw percentage (7-8) vs. SMU, as well as an .864 free throw percentage (19-22) at Temple (2/28).
•    In four AAC wins, Tulsa had to battle back from double-digit deficits – North Texas (10),UTSA (13), UAB (15) and South Florida (16).

Most in School History
•    Tulsa has set season-highs for points and field goals made this year.
•    In 32 games, the Hurricane has scored 2,266 points and made 796 field goals, breaking the previous marks of 2,245 points (2005-06) and 793 field goals (2005-06).
•    With 282 three-pointers on the year, Tulsa needs 13 more to tie the previous record of 295 treys, which was set last year in 30 games.

Poindexter and Crawford Each Surpass 600 Points; Poindexter 17 Shy of All-Time Single-Season Scoring Mark
•    Temira Poindexter (675) and Delanie Crawford (610) are the first pair teammates in school history to reach the 600-point plateau in the same season.
•    They are just the third and fourth players in school history to do so.
•    The two other players who hit 600 points in a season are Alison Curtin (692, 2002-03) and Taleya Mayberry (616, 2012-13) .
•    Poindexter reached 600 points in her 30-point game at Temple (2/28), while Crawford hit 600 in the AAC quarterfinals against East Carolina (3/11).
•    With 675 points Poindexter needs 17 points to tie Curtin for the school's single-season record for most points scored.

More on Poindexter & Crawford Scoring Accolades
•    Delanie Crawford and Temira Poindexter have reached some career milestones in just their
      junior seasons.
•    Earlier this season, Poindexter reached 1,000 career points and is now ranked 5^th on the school's career scoring chart with 1,501 points … she is 11 points shy of fourth place and 30 points shy of third place.
•     Crawford joined Poindexter and became just the 13^th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points as she scored 29 points at Wichita State (2/17) … she now has 1,140 career points for ninth place on the school's career scoring chart.
•    Both players have also scored 600+ points, making them only the third and fourth players in school history to do so.
•    They are the first pair of teammates and also only the fourth and fifth players to score over 500+ points in a single season, which has been done a total of seven times.
•    Against UTSA (2/14), Poindexter surpassed 500 points, while Crawford surpassed 500 points against UAB (2/21).
•    Only Jillian Robbins (3 years), Taleya Mayberry (1 year) and Allison Curtin (1 year) are the other players with a 500+ scoring season

TULSA HOSTS ARKANSAS TONIGHT IN WBIT FIRST ROUND

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Mady Cartwright

Delanie Crawford

Katia Gallegos

Hadley Periman

Temira Poindexter