Etou drops in 30 and helps Tulsa dominate ORU

When Junior Etou scores 30 points, Tulsa is going to be awfully tough to defeat.

Crosstown rival ORU found that out the hard way, as Etou’s performance squelched any upset hopes in Tulsa’s 90-71 victory over ORU to win the annual Mayor’s Cup on Monday night in front of 4,437 fans at the Reynolds Center.

Etou and Tulsa (1-1) rebounded nicely after an extremely disappointing home loss to Lamar in the season opener where Etou took only one shot (a miss) from the field late in the game and finished with two points.

Against ORU (1-1), Etou had 18 points in the first half. He had already made a free throw 16 seconds into the game, had made his first field goal a little more than a minute after the start, and had five points less than two minutes into the game in staking Tulsa to an early 8-2 margin.

Etou was extremely focused and unstoppable, whether it was posting up and drawing fouls, driving to the basket, or from the outside. He connected on an amazing 11-of-13 field goals, including 2-of-3 on three-pointers, and 6-of-7 free throws (he was 2-of-6 from the line in the season opener).

“He challenged me,” Etou said of TU coach Frank Haith.

“There was just encouragement,” Haith said of his talk with Etou. “You are very capable of having big nights. If they do a good job of taking you away, we’ve got other good offensive players.

“But Junior Etou should not defend Junior Etou. And that’s what happened the other night. Junior Etou had one shot attempt. We can’t be successful if he only takes one shot.”

With Etou and TU out to a good shooting start, Tulsa built a double-digit lead before seven minutes remained in the first half. And it stayed that way for the rest of the contest.

Etou’s signature moment came with just over two minutes left in the half when he stole the ball and went the distance for an emphatic dunk. The moment was significant because it was his first dunk in a regular season game for TU since transferring from Rutgers.

A 6-foot-7 senior, Etou led Tulsa in scoring last season at 12.6 points per game. Foul trouble against Lamar had limited him to five minutes in the first half. This time, he would turn the tables on his inside counterpart, Albert Owens.

Owens, a 6-9 senior who led ORU in scoring with 17.4 points per game last season, played only eight minutes in a first half after he picked up two fouls guarding Etou. ORU trailed 45-30 at halftime. Owens finished with just seven points.

DaQuan Jeffries, a starter as a freshman for ORU in the 2015-2016 season when ORU defeated Tulsa, had a strong game with 10 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and three steals.

An alley-oop dunk by Jeffries off a near halfcourt pass from Sterling Taplin gave the Golden Hurricane its largest lead of the game at 57-37 five minutes into the second half.

But Tulsa fans started to get a little antsy when the Golden Eagles began to shrink the margin. They were especially on edge for a few moments when Etou fell hard and grabbed his ankle in apparent pain with a 61-49 lead with 11:20 remaining. But Etou was fine, and returned to the game shortly afterward.

ORU would pull to within 11 at 64-53 with over 10 minutes remaining, but the Golden Hurricane was able to get the lead back up to 17 points a couple of minutes later, and there were no more worries.

Emmanuel Nzekwesi, a 6-8 forward, led ORU with 18 points and nine rebounds.

After being challenged by Haith as well after the first game, Taplin played well with 17 points, four assists to only one turnover, four rebounds and three steals.

“He challenged me. I’m coach Haith’s voice on the court,” said Taplin, a 6-1 junior point guard. “It was just the fact of me keeping my team’s head up and just talking to them the whole game.”

Freshman combo guard Elijah Joiner played 22 minutes - the fourth most on the team - and had a sound game with two assists to no turnovers, four rebounds and three points.

Lawson Korita played a surprising 19 minutes and was 2-of-2 from the field, finishing with five points. Haith was pleased with his play.

“The ball always moves when Lawson is in the game,” Haith said of Korita’s passing.

Overall, Haith was very happy with his team’s performance against ORU after its poor performance against Lamar.

“I didn’t see it coming," Haith said of the Lamar game. “We had practiced our tail off for this fall. I didn’t recognize that team on Friday afternoon. This team was the team tonight that we’ve been coaching.

“Our competitive spirit was at a high level. This was more like what I expected our team to look like."