Die-hard Golden Hurricane fans got a glimpse of their new Mr. Clutch in Curran Scott.
Scott hit the game-winning shot with 12.3 seconds remaining as the Black squad won a 69-68 thriller over the Blue squad at the Saturday afternoon scrimmage at the Reynolds Center.
For a Tulsa team that desperately needed offense after finishing 15-17 last season, Scott is a welcome addition. The Edmond Santa Fe grad is finally eligible after sitting last season after transferring from Charlotte, where he averaged in double figures as a freshmen in 2016.
Scott scored 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting, including 2 of 3 on three-pointers. But most impressive was his drives and pull up jumpers, where he continually made off-balance shots, including the game-winner in the middle of a crowded lane.
“You see Curran can score the ball,” said TU coach Frank Haith. “He knows how to put that ball in the hole. It’s not always pretty looking, but he gets fouled, he’s crafty, he’s heady.”
For a Tulsa team looking for a talent infusion, the Saturday scrimmage featured refreshing performances from not only Scott by also two other new faces in DaQuan Jeffries and Elijah Joiner.
Jeffries, a teammate of Scott as seniors at Edmond Santa Fe, is a juco transfer who spent his first college season starting for ORU. Playing mostly the four position, and working with the bigs before the scrimmage, the 6-foot-5 Jeffries slashed his way to 18 points for the Blue on 7 of 12 shooting. His field goal percentage in juco ball last season was well over 60 percent.
“Quan is explosive. He scores in a variety of ways,” Haith said. “We want him to be more assertive. He’s really unselfish. I think he has the potential to be more aggressive than he was today.”
Joiner, a freshman from Chicago, looked good at point guard in setting up his teammates, including Scott, and finished with a game-high seven assists while scoring six points (3 of 7 on field goals). It was defensively where he shined the most, coming up with three steals, and especially so in the second half while guarding starting point guard Sterling Taplin.
Taplin, who looked good in making 7 of 12 shots for 16 points, scored 14 points in a first half where he was mostly unstoppable. He appears to clearly be the leader of the team.
Junior Etou was the other star of the scrimmage for the Black team, scoring 21 points and grabbing eight rebounds, both team highs. He hit 7 of 9 from the field, including 4 of 6 three-pointers. The 6-7 senior forward from the Republic of Congo led Tulsa in scoring last season after transferring from Rutgers.
“I think I’ve improved a lot. My speed, learning from film, my ball handling, my jump shot,” Etou said. “We have improved a lot. This is not the same team compared to last year.”
Jaleel Wheeler looked good, scoring 14 points while making 6 of 7 shots from the field for the Black squad. The senior and former juco transfer does still need to work on cutting down turnovers, as he had five of them while getting two steals of his own. He made a three-pointer at the buzzer at the end of the first half.
Tulsa’s players shot incredibly well for the most part, with both teams combining to shoot 57.3 from the field. At the free throw line, the teams combined to make 21 of 24 attempts (88 percent), and they connected on 14 of 34 three-pointers (41.2 percent).
“We shot the ball really well today,” Haith said. “If we shoot like that, we will win a lot of games.”
The Black team started Etou, Joiner, Geno Artison (4 points, 4 of 4 on free throws) Scott and Wheeler, while Corey Haith (0-1 field goals), and Jeriah Horne (4 points) came off the bench. Horne, the heralded sophomore transfer from Nebraska, has to sit out this year and didn’t play as much since he won’t be playing during the season.
The Blue team started Martins Igbanu (10 points, 6 rebounds), Jeffries, Lawson Korita (7 points, 2 of 2 on three-pointers), Taplin and Corey Henderson (13 points, 3 of 6 three-pointers), while Darien Jackson (4 points, 4 assists) and Alex Foree came off the bench.
After Scott’s shot put the Black team ahead 69-68, Taplin came down and had a good look to win the game, but his runner from four feet away went off the backboard and spun out.
Etou had hit a three-pointer with 50 seconds left to put the Black up 67-66, but Igbanu made both free throws with 32.7 seconds left to give the Blue a 68-67 lead.
Tulsa will have to play this year with limited size inside, as only Etou, Igbanu, Artison and Jeffries are likely to play the four or five spots inside.
“We don’t have a lot of tall guys, but we’re pretty strong,” Haith said. “I think that’s going to be the trade-off for us. We’re quicker, we’re faster, we’re more athletic.”
Haith is very upbeat about the 2017-2018 Golden Hurricane.
“I like our team. I think we’ve got a team that can be really good,” Haith said. “It’s good to see us compete to the end and see us make plays down the stretch. You want a team that can make plays when the game is on the line. I thought we did some really good things in the last two minutes of the ball game.”
