Henderson leads Tulsa to win over UConn in double OT
Corey Henderson’s career night included a shot for the ages where he brought Tulsa back from the dead.
Henderson’s heavily guarded three-pointer with 4.2 seconds left in regulation got Tulsa into overtime, where the Golden Hurricane went on to win 90-88 over UConn in a classic double-overtime game Wednesday night in front of 3,903 fans at the Reynolds Center.
Career highs of 30 points and seven rebounds by Henderson highlighted a night where Tulsa set an AAC record of 17 made three-pointers on 41 attempts. Henderson made eight of 15 three-pointers, but it was his game-tying triple that everyone will remember.
“I just tried to get open. They guarded me, and I just kind of stepped back. I hit one of those before in practice, so I was just praying it went in, and it sure went in, and I was just excited like the rest of the team,” said the 6-foot-4 Henderson, who played a team-high of 44 minutes.
For Henderson, the game was a major comeback from his three points on one-of-six shooting in 19 minutes in Tulsa’s Sunday road victory at Tulane.
“I struggled the last game - I didn’t hit anything, so I wanted to knock shots down like I’m supposed to,” Henderson said. “I was just trying to knock shots down, that’s all I was thinking, to knock shots down.”
UConn (7-7, 0-2 AAC) almost forced a third overtime when star guard Jalen Adams barely missed a difficult driving layup in traffic in the closing seconds of the second overtime, with UConn down 90-88.
The ball was then tipped back out and the Huskies had a chance to win, but Terry Larrier’s three-pointer was well-off, as was Adams’ quick attempt at the buzzer underneath the basket.
It was truly amazing Tulsa was even in overtime.
Tulsa (10-5, 3-0) was down 75-72 after a 17-foot jumper by the 6-3 Adams, who led the Huskies with 29 points, with 11.3 seconds left in regulation. After a timeout, Tulsa’s Sterling Taplin raced down the court and dished to Henderson on the right side, who then took a quick dribble and made the levitating shot over Adams and Antwoine Anderson.
"He just made a hell of a shot," UConn coach Kevin Ollie said of Henderson.
Christian Vital’s game-winning attempt wasn’t close, and the game went into overtime. It was a stunning reversal of fortune for a Tulsa team that trailed 73-69 until a Henderson three-pointer with 38.6 seconds remaining pulled Tulsa to within one.
Tulsa had led for most of the game until the closing minutes due to a sizzling first half where the Golden Hurricane relied heavily on three-pointers, hitting 10 of 16 behind the arc while only hitting three two-pointers in the half.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about Tulsa’s win was that its star player, Junior Etou, had a mostly miserable shooting night. UConn continually doubled Etou and harassed him, and when he had open looks, the shots weren’t falling, with several spinning out.
Tulsa was able to lead 42-36 at halftime despite zero points from Etou in the half. TU only got five points out of Etou in regulation, and he finished three of 15 from the field, including one of 10 on threes.
Averaging 17.9 coming into the game as the reigning AAC player of the week, the 6-7 Etou kept playing hard, finishing with a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“There will be a time that teams will do a great job on Junior and take him away,” said TU coach Frank Haith. “They doubled him. They have a plethora of bigs. They rotate a number of guys in there and they were fresh, and I thought they did a great job on him.
“But give our guys credit. Corey, Elijah and Sterling all stepped up and made some big shots.”
Freshman guard Elijah Joiner had 13 points, three rebounds, two assists and no turnovers, while Taplin finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, five assists and only one turnover. Martins Igbanu had a double-double with 14 points (10 of 13 on free throws) and 10 rebounds.
UConn had the upper hand in the first overtime, leading 79-78 with 12 seconds left inbounding the ball underneath its own bucket. But an inbounds pass to a heavily guarded Adams almost forced him out of bounds. Adams tried to toss the ball off Jaleel Wheeler’s leg so it would go out of bounds, but the bounce off Wheeler was stolen by a diving Taplin.
Taplin then dished to Joiner, who was fouled driving to the bucket with six seconds left in the first overtime. Joiner made the first and missed the second, and Vital badly missed again on another attempt to win the game at the buzzer, and it was off to the second overtime.
Etou making two free throws early in the second overtime gave him some confidence, and he hit a key three with 3:23 remaining in the second overtime to give Tulsa the lead for good at 84-82. A layup in traffic by Taplin extended the lead to 86-82.
From there, Tulsa was able to make enough free throws to hold off the Huskies, including six of seven by Henderson, who made his last two to make the score 89-86 with 22.3 second remaining. The Golden Hurricane finished 25 of 36 (69.4 percent) from the line, while the Huskies made nine of 14 (64.3 percent).
Taplin made the second of two free throws to make the score 90-88 with 10.9 seconds left, setting up the crazy final sequence by UConn.
Another key to the game was Tulsa outrebounding the athletic Huskies by a 53-45 margin.
A positive for Tulsa was the return of DaQuan Jeffries from his finger injury which caused him to miss the last six games. He played 16 minutes, and his presence helped, but his finger still looked like it affected him as he had three turnovers and had trouble holding on to the ball. He didn’t score on his only shot attempt and had two rebounds and a blocked shot.
UConn’s trio of Adams, Larrier (played all 50 minutes) and Vital carried the Huskies, combining for 70 of their 88 points. Vital and Larrier finished with 22 and 19 points, respectively.
“Jalen Adams is a load. Those three guys – Larrier, Adams and Vital, all three of them, were all clicking tonight, so we had to make all those threes, because those guys are terrific offensive players,” Haith said.
“It was a great, great game. I thought it was a high-level basketball game with a lot of plays made by both teams. It was just a great American Athletic Conference game. I thought our guys showed great toughness and just stayed with it throughout the ball game.”