Leave it to the old veteran Sterling Taplin to pick Tulsa up just when it looked like the Golden Hurricane might have another extremely disappointing season opener.

Taplin scored 12 of his game high 16 points after halftime, and dished out five assists to lead Tulsa to a 73-56 victory over Alcorn State on Tuesday night in front of a crowd of 3,128 at the Reynolds Center.

“Winning is hard, particularly in the first game. Two years in a row we haven’t won this game, so we’re excited about winning this ball game, and there is a lot we can take from it,” said fifth-year TU coach Frank Haith of losing the season openers at home to Jacksonville State and Lamar the last two seasons.

It was a close contest throughout the first half, but Tulsa (1-0) had extended its 40-37 halftime lead to 51-41 midway through the second half.

It was then, however, that things started to get a little dicey, as the Golden Hurricane had its lead cut to 53-52 with under eight minutes remaining after the Braves had sunk three 3-pointers in less than three minutes.

Tulsa’s defense, however, clamped down from that point on, allowing only one more made shot from the field the rest of the game.

Lawson Korita scored the next three points, and a missed free throw after a basket by Korita was turned into a TU rebound by Curran Scott, who passed it back out to his former Edmond Santa Fe teammate DaQuan Jeffries for a three-pointer from the left corner, and Tulsa’s lead was back up to 59-52.

Taplin then scored the next eight TU points, including a four-point play where he was knocked down while draining a three-pointer with 3:12 left, and the Golden Hurricane was all of a sudden leading 67-56.

Alcorn State (0-1) was hot in the first half, making 14 of 28 shots from the field, including five of 13 three-pointers, and held brief leads by as many as three points in the first half.

Fortunately for TU, it made 13 of 23 shots in the first half (56.5 percent), and finished 24 of 49 from the field (49 percent). However, Tulsa made just 20 of 32 free throws (62.5 percent) for the game.

The SWAC conference team from Mississippi that finished 11-21 last season was, for the most part, shut down in the second half, as Alcorn State made only five of 21 shots in the half, including only one field goal in the last seven plus minutes.

“I thought our defense was really outstanding in the second half and that carried us,” Haith said. “Defensively we got kills, that’s three consecutive stops. We had several of those in the second half. We didn’t get one of those in the first half.”

Taplin’s coming alive in the second half also sparked the Golden Hurricane.

“I challenged Sterling at halftime,” Haith said of the senior point guard. “I wanted him to play with a little more pop. And I think he started to do that.

“He’s a little bit under the weather. But if you’re going to play, we’re going to want you to play. I thought he obviously did a great job there in the second half. Not only was he scoring, but he made some nice passes too.”

Taplin attributed Tulsa’s win to increased intensity in the second half, especially on the defensive end.

“We were way more active in the second half,” Taplin said. “We finished plays. In the first half, we were letting them get tipped balls, get rebounds, second chances. In the second half, we kind of cut that off."

Taplin had suffered through the last two season opening losses and wasn’t going to let that happen again.

“It is very difficult, but we have a great coaching staff that prepares us for it,” Taplin said of playing in season openers. “Like coach said, it’s a lot of jitters, but once you get those jitters out, you’re ready to go. I think we were very prepared for the first game.

“We just had to keep our focus and wrap up the defensive end. Once we started getting kills, or stops, we started to stretch the lead.”

Haith was just happy to get a win and move on.

“Alcorn State is at zero, they’re undefeated, just like us,” Haith said of Alcorn State coming into the game. “So you’re going to get an excited team this time of year that is going to come here. They’ve got some guards that can score and shoot that ball. That’s how teams upset people when they can shoot the ball. They play free and easy."

Deshaw Andrews led the Braves with 20 points, including three of five 3-pointers, and added five rebounds

“We’ve got some new guys, and they’re excited and amped up and ready to play," Haith said. "But it’s a little different when you go out there. It’s hard.”

Tulsa started the game with a lineup of Taplin, Jeffries, Martins Igbanu, Zeke Moore and Darien Jackson (four points). The second team that came in consisted of Elijah Joiner at point guard , Chris Barnes, Scott, Jeriah Horne and Simon Falokun. Korita was the 11th man to play, but had seven points and three rebounds in 19 minutes.

“Lawson’s been nicked up, but I thought he came in and gave us a huge boost off the bench,” Haith said. “He hasn’t practiced much the last two days because of some injuries.”

Jeffries, who along with Taplin, is one of the top two players on the team, was limited to just 14 minutes due to foul trouble. He did manage to play down the stretch, finishing with eight points and four rebounds.

Playing mostly in the last half of the game was a lineup of Jeffries, Igbanu (eight points, five rebounds), Korita, Scott (one point and seven rebounds) and Taplin.

Heralded 6-7 Nebraska transfer Jeriah Horne, who had all seven of his points in the first half, swapped out with Jeffries at the four spot all game, playing 23 minutes. Other transfer players making their debut were Moore (four points and three rebounds in 13 minutes), Chris Barnes (six points in 17 minutes) and 6-8 center Falokun (one point and one rebound in 12 minutes).

Joiner was the only other Golden Hurricane player in double figures, scoring eight of his 11 points in the first half. He played exclusively at point guard, playing 13 minutes while subbing for Taplin, who played 27 minutes.

“We play a lot of guys. I don’t know if we’ll play 11 guys all year,” Haith said. “But we’re learning. I do know we have a lot of options.

“This time of year, there’s no way you're going to be great. What you hope is that you play well enough to win the game and that you learn from it.”

Tulsa plays host to South Carolina State on Saturday.