Late Tulsa comeback falls short against Wichita State
What was an abysmal performance with seemingly zero energy for most of the game turned somewhat interesting.
Intensity was amped up when it seemed like there was no hope.
In the end, it wasn't nearly enough, as archrival Wichita State prevailed 86-75 Sunday afternoon in front of 3,754 fans at the Reynolds Center.
Tulsa (5-17, 1-10 AAC) played as poorly as possible for the first 37 minutes of the game against the same Shockers' squad that Tulsa almost beat, and should have beat, less than a month ago in Wichita.
Trailing by as many as 24 points in the second half, and by 21 points at 77-56 with less than 3 minutes remaining, Tulsa started playing with fire and purpose.
"We told them with 3:30 to go, let's see what we can do, and make a push here," TU coach Eric Konkol said. "If we could bottle that up and have that type of intensity, that would be a great thing."
Tim Dalger led the charge with a game-high 24 points, which included 17 points in the final 8 minutes of the game. Dalger finished the game hitting 5 of 7 three-pointers, and had a plus/minus ratio of only minus 2.
A three-pointer by Dalger with 2:47 remaining cut the margin to 18, and got Tulsa going. With the energized Golden Hurricane finally playing, they whittled the lead down quickly. A jumper by Sam Griffin with 52.2 seconds remaining cut the margin to 79-69.
Wichita State (12-11, 5-6) was missing free throws during the comeback, and after another missed front-end of a one-and-one by the Shockers, Dalger came through with a put-back dunk on the other end with 37.2 seconds that narrowed the lead to 8 points at 79-71.
Yet another missed free throw by the Shockers led to Tulsa's chance to cut it to 5 or even 4 points, as Dalger got the Shocker defender in the air on a pump fake, then leaned in to him to try and draw the foul while attempting a three-pointer.
But Dalger's shot missed with 23 seconds left, and there was no foul called, which led to a WSU fast break and 10 point lead that effectively ended the game. Still, Tulsa cut it to 8 points again with 14 seconds left, and never gave up, continuing to foul until the end.
"I had a differing opinion on that one," Konkol said of the no-call on Dalger's miss.
Prize freshmen signees Jarred Hall and Matt Reed were both at the game, sitting together, and were shown on the big screen scoreboard. They both had the weekend off, and decided to make the trip to Tulsa for the weekend.
Tulsa was hindered by not having starting point guard Anthony Pritchard available. Pritchard was sick and not on the bench.
Without Pritchard in the first half, TU looked completely lost.
"We were trying to re-tool without having A.P. out there," Konkol said.
The first half was a complete disaster for the Golden Hurricane against a mediocre Shockers team. Tulsa went from having a 13-12 lead to trailing 45-26 at half.
The Shockers, who had about 150 loud fans at the game, were led by 6-foot-5 guard Jaron Pierre, who had 19 points. James Rojas, a 6-6 senior forward, was the most impressive of the Shockers with 17 points and 9 rebounds, including 7 of 8 from the field. Jaykwon Walton, a 6-7 guard, also added 17 points.
The only bright spot in the first half was freshman B.B. Knight, who had 8 of his 13 points while starting his 10th game of the season. Knight was 3 of 8 on three-pointers, and 5 of 10 overall from the field in 29 minutes.
"They tell me to keep shooting, and it gave me the confidence I could get it done," Knight said. "The percentages will work themselves out. When I made a couple of shots it gave me confidence."
Konkol is pleased with Knight's development.
"He's earning more opportunities, and he's taking advantage of those opportunities," Konkol said of Knight, who came into the game averaging 1.8 points in 10.9 minutes per game.
The rest of the team's performance for the first 37 minutes was head-scratching. Really painful to watch.
In a rivalry that was at its height in the 1980's in the Missouri Valley Conference, Wichita State had MTXE on their uniforms, standing for Mental Toughness Extra Effort.
Tulsa had none of those things for most of the first 37 minutes. But then, it was all-out effort.
"We can play harder, and that's what we told our team," Konkol said. "And that we can get after people better, and that we can show more resistance.
"We've got to be able to be more physical, too. We've got to put our chests on the ball. There are charges to take that we didn't, there are box-outs to make that we just didn't."
Tulsa plays at No. 3 Houston Wednesday night.