Tulsa Downs #24 South Florida 76-70 on Senior Day

Saturday, March 9

2:00 PM

Tulsa

16-14,7-11AAC

South Florida

23-6,16-2AAC

South Fla.

Tulsa

Tulsa Downs #24 South Florida 76-70 on Senior Day

3/9/2024 6:37:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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TULSA, Okla. –– PJ Haggerty and Cobe Williams combined for 55 points in Tulsa's 76-70 win over the nation's 24th-ranked South Florida Bulls in the regular season finale Saturday afternoon in front of 5,515 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

The win snapped the nation's longest current winning streak of 15 games held by the Bulls. USF's last loss came on Jan. 7, at UAB by a 75-71 score. Today's loss is only the second in American Athletic Conference play for the Bulls this season, falling to 23-6 overall and 16-2 in league play.

Tulsa improved to 16-14 overall, guaranteeing the Hurricane of a winning season for the first time in four years, and finished the league campaign with a 7-11 record in just Eric Konkol's second season leading the Hurricane.

"It was a total team effort. Not just our team, but it was a City of Tulsa effort. Our fans were especially awesome. From the free throws they had to shoot late, just the volume in the building was awesome," said Konkol.

Haggerty scored a career-high 32 points and added seven rebounds, five assists and three steals while 26 of his points came in the second half. The senior Williams finished with 23 points and a career-high 11 rebounds while adding three steals and two assists on Senior Day.

Haggerty's 32 points was the fourth highest point total in the Reynolds Center by a Hurricane player and while also becoming only the second Tulsa player in Reynolds Center history with two 30+ scoring games in a single season.

The victory was Tulsa's first over a ranked team since a 65-64 victory over No. 5 Houston on Dec. 29, 2020.

Tulsa came back from a double-digit first half deficit to build its own double-figure lead in the final three minutes of the contest. The Hurricane scored the game's first basket, but trailed for most all the first half after the Bulls took a 6-3 lead to remain on top for the rest of the period, building its largest lead to 12 points.

In the final 2:15 of the first half, Tulsa out-scored USF 10-4 and left the court trailing 37-31 at halftime.

In the second half, USF maintained its lead through nearly the first 10 minutes until Haggerty's floating jumper knotted the score at 52-52 with 10:19 on the clock. Williams scored on a driving layup at the 9:27 mark to give Tulsa its first lead at 54-52 since starting the game 2-0.

Haggerty's basket began a 9-0 run to put the Hurricane ahead 59-52 when Williams hit a step-back three-pointer at the 7:34 mark. Tulsa increased its lead to 11 on two Haggerty free throws with 2:32 remaining in the contest, making the score 69-58.

The Bulls came raging back with a 9-1 run to cut Tulsa's lead to three points at 70-67 with 1:20 on the game clock, but the Hurricane made 6-of-8 three-pointers in the final minute of the game.

"We've talked since the very beginning, since the summer, that our goal was to get better and better as the season goes on. To become the best version of us in late February and March. It feels like that's happening. Our focus is to keep doing that. And now, going into the conference tournament, just try to play and continue this season as long as we possibly can. These are a great group of guys, not just honored but love coaching these guys every single day and I just want to keep it going."

Tulsa will be the No. 9 seed at the American Athletic Conference Championship and will play #8 East Carolina on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. (CT) at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE FIRST HALF . . .
Jared Garcia scored the game's first basket for a 2-0 Tulsa lead.

USF took a 6-3 lead and held it for the remainder of the first half, and took its first double-digit lead, 24-14, at the 8:36 mark.

The Bulls had its largest lead of 12 points twice in the final four minutes.

In the final 2:15, Tulsa cut a 12-point deficit to six points at halftime, 37-31, as Cobe Williams scored five of Tulsa's 10 points in that final stretch.

Tulsa connected 35.5% of its field goals and 26.7% from three-point range, while USF converted 44.4% overall and 30% from behind the arc, making 3-of-10 treys.

IN THE SECOND HALF . . .
The Bulls maintained its lead through nearly the first 10 minutes of the half until PJ Haggerty's floating jumper knotted the score at 52-52 with 10:1 on the clock.

Cobe Williams scored on a driving layup at the 9:27 mark to give Tulsa its first lead at 54-52 since starting the game 2-0.

Haggerty's basket began a 9-0 run to put the Hurricane ahead 59-52 on Williams' step-back three-pointer at the 7:34 mark.

Tulsa increased its lead to 11 on two Haggerty free throws with 2:32 remaining in the contest, making the score 69-58.

The Bulls came raging back with a 9-1 run to cut Tulsa's lead to three-points at 70-67 with 1:20 on the game clock.

In the final minute Williams was 4-of-4 from the free throw line and Haggerty and Jared Garcia were each 1-of-2 to give Tulsa the six-point win.

GAME NOTES
• Tulsa improved to 16-14 overall on the season and 7-11 in AAC games.
• The victory over #24-ranked South Florida was Tulsa's first win over a top-25 opponent since a 65-64 win against #5 Houston on Dec. 29, 2020.
• With its 16 wins on the season, Tulsa has improved 11 wins overall and six more AAC wins from a year ago with one regular season game remaining.
• The win over USF improved the series lead for Tulsa to 13-3 overall and 7-1 at the Reynolds Center, while snapping a three-game USF winning streak.
• Tulsa is now 5-10 when trailing at halftime.
• Redshirt freshman PJ Haggerty went over 600 points today making it just the 12^th time in school history for a player to score over 600 points in a single season, the first freshman and for the 15^th time (Willie Biles, Steve Harris and Shea Seals are the only players to do it twice).
• Haggerty is the first 600-point scorer in Tulsa history since Justin Hurtt scored 650 in the 2010-11 season.
• Haggerty is the second TU player to surpass 600 points, 100 rebounds, 100 assists and 50 steals, making him also only the 12^th freshman in NCAA history to do so.
• With a new career high of 32 points, Haggerty had his 29^th double-figure scoring game of the season and his 26^th straight
• It is Haggerty's 19^th 20+ and second 30+ scoring game this season.
• Cobe Williams had his second career double-double but his first for points and rebounds (23 pts, 11 reb) … his previous was a double-double for points and assists on Dec. 14, 2022 (23 pts, 11 assists) vs. Stephen F. Austin while playing at LA Tech.
• It was Williams his fourth 20+ scoring game of the year and second straight.
• Williams had his eighth game with 3 or more made three-pointers.

Tulsa's AAC second round tournament game against East Carolina will be carried on ESPNU and can be heard on Big Country 99.5 FM Radio.