Tulsa Holds Off Charlotte for 76-70 Home Win

Wednesday, January 8

Tulsa, Okla.

6:30 p.m.

Tulsa

8-8,2-2AAC

Charlotte

5-10,0-4AAC

Charlotte

Tulsa

Photo by: Bill Powell

Tulsa Holds Off Charlotte for 76-70 Home Win

1/8/2025 11:19:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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TULSA, Okla. — Stellar play by junior Hadley Periman and sophomore Mady Cartwright and a well-balanced team effort by the Golden Hurricane women's basketball team stifled Charlotte's comeback bid for the 76-70 victory in the Donald W. Reynolds Center Wednesday night.

TU evened itself up to 8-8 on the year and 2-2 in American Athletic Conference play, while Charlotte fell to 5-10 and winless in league action at 0-4.

Periman dominated all aspects of the game with 16 points and a career-high 15 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. She also contributed an arena-high eight assists, finishing just two shy of earning what would have been Tulsa's second-ever triple-double. Periman made 6-of-9 field goals and went perfect from deep in a 3-for-3 effort.

Periman also led TU with three steals and two blocks.

Cartwright surpassed 20 points for the first time in her career with 6-of-11 baskets from the field, including 3-of-7 made 3-pointers, and swished 6-of-8 from the charity line.

Tulsa led by as many as 24 points midway through the third quarter but saw the Niners try to fight their way back, holding Tulsa to just one field goal in the final 4:47 of the third quarter and outscoring the Hurricane 25-12 in the fourth quarter. TU did just enough in the final 10 minutes to hold off the 49ers and ended up finishing with 51 team rebounds to Charlotte's 38, which made all the difference in Wednesday's contest.

By the final buzzer, Tulsa had made 25 total field goals, of which 22 were assisted. Behind Periman's eight assists was senior Kristol Ayson with four and Paige Bradley, Elise Hill and Cartwright with three apiece.

As usual, senior Delanie Crawford finished in double-figure scoring, this time accruing 14 points in just under 20 minutes. Elise Hill also completed the game in double-digits, scoring 10 off three 3-pointers and a free throw.

"I say it almost every game, just how proud of our team's heart and their fight and the way that they play," Head Coach Angie Nelp said. "I think we got to see that today. One of the things that I always believe is that your identity is going to shine through whenever you face moments of adversity. And we faced some moments of adversity in this game, and I love the way that our teamwork and toughness shown through. And I just really love how our team won that game down the stretch. I thought that we played really well to start. I felt we were getting up and down. It was an up-tempo game. The game just got a little bit tighter and slower there toward the end, and we didn't defend as well as we wanted to in that fourth quarter, giving up a few more points than what we would like, but just really proud of the way that we were able to play both sides of that game really well.

"I felt like we had some players, that that got a lot of good experience in a close game. Those possessions down the stretch were just really critical defensive stops for us and really critical offensive possessions for us. Every single game in our league is going to be really competitive with such great parity and teams. Today, it wasn't any different. Really proud of the stat where it talks about us having 22 assists on 25 made field goals. That's our team playing at a really high level and playing in sync together. I'm proud of the fact that we out-rebounded them, that was probably the difference in the game."

Charlotte finished with three double-digit scorers with Kay Kay Green leading the way with 18 points and Hayleigh Breland and Roshelle Madison each following with 12 points. Breland also had 12 rebounds to earn a double-double.

HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE FIRST QUARTER . . .
Mady Cartwright was the first to score, scoring on a layup from Hadley Periman after TU won the tip-off.

Charlotte put up a pair of layups before TU utilized an 11-point run to pull ahead 13-4 thanks to 3-pointers by Periman, Elise Hill and Mady Cartwright and a fast-break layup by Delanie Crawford. Crawford added another trey to give the Hurricane a 10-point lead at 16-6 with 4:08 on the clock.

Two free throws by Cartwright and a second 3-pointer by Hill gave TU its biggest lead of the quarter at 14 points (21-7 at 0:51). On Tulsa's final possession, Charlotte stole the ball and took it down the court for a quick fast-break layup as time expired in the frame. Tulsa led 21-11 at the end of one.

IN THE SECOND QUARTER . . .
TU benefitted from Delanie Crawford's second 3-pointer to open the second quarter. 2:30 passed on the clock before either team made a field goal with only the 49ers scoring on a single free throw. Hadley Periman snapped the scoring drought for Tulsa with a layup at 6:56.

Periman added five more points off a triple and another layup received from Mady Cartwright to give the Hurricane a 16-point lead at 33-17 (4:35). Then, she moved to 3-of-3 made threes on the night and assisted Jade Clack on a layup to put Tulsa up 38-17 at 3:01.

Clacked contributed another layup with 59 seconds left before Cartwright sank a pair of free throws. A jumper made by Charlotte's Kay Kay Green with five seconds left capped a successful half for the Hurricane as they led 43-28 at the break.

At the half, TU was 15-32 from the field (46.9%), 8-17 (47.1%) from 3-point land and 5-6 from the line (83.3%), while Charlotte was shooting 10-23 in field goals (43.5%), including 2-7 from deep (28.6%) and 6-11 from the charity stripe.

Hadley Periman and Mady Cartwright each led TU in scoring with 13 points and 12 points, respectively. Periman was 5-6 in shooting and a perfect 3-3 in triples at the break.

IN THE THIRD QUARTER . . .
Delanie Crawford took the ball to the basket for the opening score of the second half. After Elise Hill answered a 49er jumper, Crawford took the ball to the line after an intentional foul by Charlotte and gave TU a 20-point lead, 50-30 with the clock reading 8:03.

Tulsa continued to answer each of Charlotte's baskets with scoring runs. Mady Cartwright scored five unanswered points after a 49er fast break and then added Tulsa's 11^th 3-pointer of the night at 4:47 on a smart pass from Hadley Periman.

Charlotte finally had a scoring run of its own, going 9-0 streak before Cartwright drew a foul and made one of two free throws, putting TU up 60-44 at 2:24.

TU went without a field goal for just over four minutes until Paige Bradley got on the board with a 3-pointer from Elise Hill with 38 seconds left in the frame. It was the last score between either team as Tulsa entered the fourth quarter on top 64-45.

IN THE FOURTH QUARTER . . .
Charlotte opened the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run. Tulsa got its first point of the final period at 6:53 off a Delanie Crawford layup, putting TU at 66-52.

After Crawford and Cartwright were disqualified by fouls within the first few minutes of the quarter, Charlotte's defense tightened up, holding the Hurricane to just 12 points in the quarter.

The Niners scored six unanswered by Kay Kay Green from 4:01 to 2:47 and benefitted from four 3-pointers to shorten the gap. After an Elise Hill free throw and Paige Bradley layup, Charlotte began answering all eight of Tulsa's points, four of which were free throws.

The deficit between the two teams was as small as six points at 74-68. Although it wasn't the Hurricane's best quarter, clutch free throws by Jade Clack and Kristol Ayson kept the 49ers at bay, securing the 76-70 victory for Tulsa.

GAME NOTES

Tulsa donned all-gold jerseys for the first time since March 2, 2020.
The Hurricane improved to 3-1 in the Tulsa-Charlotte series with wins in the last three meetings.
TU is now 6-3 in the Donald W. Reynolds Center so far this season. That puts the Hurricane at 21-5 at home since the start of last season, 32-9 since 2022-23 and 40-14 since Nelp joined the program.
Tulsa set a season-high of 12 3-pointers. The last time TU made that many was in the first round of the WBIT last season against Arkansas on March 21, 2024.
12 triples are the 10^th-most made by the Hurricane in a conference game.
TU also assisted 22 of its 25 field goals. 22 assists are the seventh-most by Tulsa against a conference opponent ever.
Tulsa allowed zero blocks for the third time this season (Montana and Chicago State)
15 rebounds by Junior Hadley Periman is a career-high and the most by a Tulsa player since Jessika Evans against Duquesne (15 reb.) on Dec. 1, 2022.
Periman secured her third double-double of the season and her career with 16 points and 15 rebounds. She had eight assists, just two shy of getting what would have been Tulsa's second-ever triple-double.
Periman's 16 points makes for her fifth game scoring in double-digits this season and sixth of her career.
Sophomore Mady Cartwright led TU in scoring for the first time this season and the second time in her career with 21 points.
It's the first time Cartwright has surpassed 20 points in a game. It's also the seventh time this year she's scored double-digit points and the seventeenth time in her career.
Delanie Crawford scored 14 points for her 15^th double-digit scoring contest this season and 74^th of her career.
Elise Hill rounded out the double-figure scoring with 10 points. It's her 10^th game this season and 13^th of her career scoring 10 or more points in a game.
Periman's two blocks moved her to 104 career rejections for seventh on the all-time TU blocks chart. She needs 17 to pass Megan Moody's (2002-06) 120 blocks for sixth.
Crawford's 14 points moved her to 1,485 career points. She needs 28 points to pass Larrissa Williams' (2006-10) 1,512 points for fifth on the all-time Hurricane points chart.
Crawford also had two three-pointers Wednesday, moving to 225 career threes. She needs just 9 more treys to surpass the Tulsa career record of 233 set by Kelsee Grovey (2012-16).
Crawford stands at No. 6 in the all-time field-goals-made career chart for TU with 510 after recording five on Wednesday. She needs 60 more to pass Temira Poindexter's (2021-24) 569 FG for fifth.
Lastly, Crawford improved to a .816 free throw percentage, the ninth-best in Tulsa history. She also has the 10^th-most free throws under her belt with 240, just two shy of Tandem Mays (2003-07), who had 242.