It was significantly different for Keaston Willis this time against ORU. And only in good ways.
Willis scored 22 points to lead TU to an 85-76 victory Wednesday night to win the Mayor’s Cup in front of 3,906 fans at the Reynolds Center.
“Last year was my first game of the season when we played them, and obviously we didn’t come up with the win in that game,” Willis said. “It was the first game I had any action. But this year, I’ve been able to prepare all offseason, so I could just go out there, and do my thing, and play with confidence.”
Besides scoring, Willis came down with a team-high 8 rebounds, as well as having 3 assists, no turnovers, and 1 steal. He was 5 of 9 from the field, including 3 of 6 on three-pointers, 9 of 12 on free throws, and displayed his ability to drive to the basket and pull up and shoot.
Last season, Willis was just coming off a second injury to a metatarsal bone in his left foot, and scored 10 points in 23 minutes. Although he actually played well against ORU last season, this season he looks stronger and more ready.
Willis was one of 4 players in double digits: Isaiah Barnes and Dwon Odom had 15 apiece, and Tyshawn Archie had 14 points. Braeden Carrington had 9 points while adding 4 assists with no turnovers.
Tulsa (3-0) only had 5 turnovers compared with 13 assists. Tulsa’s strong passing performance was evident in several plays where players turned down decent shots to get easy ones for teammates.
“We have a bunch of players who don’t care about their own stats,” Willis said. “We’ve got a deep team. We’ve got guys, whether they’re playing 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 5 minutes, it doesn’t matter. They come in, and we work.”
ORU (1-2) came into the game winning the last 3 seasons against TU, with none of the games coming down to the wire. The Golden Eagles seem to always play up against TU, like in last years’ 79-70 win over TU. But especially when it had better teams, as was the case the previous two seasons in 2021 and 2022 before last season.
“This is a big-time game. Coach (Konkol) let us know how much this game means to our city, and to each team’s fan base,” Willis said. “We were all very excited, whether you’ve been here a year or all 4 years.”
The Golden Eagles got out to an early 6-point lead, but Tulsa was able to weather the storm, and finally led for good at 15-14. Its 38-29 lead was extended to double digits, and as high as 20 points at 60-40. The lead stayed in double digits until the game was out of reach in the last minute.
“Great environment. A lot of fun to be involved in this game,” said third-year coach Eric Konkol. “It’s a nice step to bring the Mayor’s Cup back here to 11th and Harvard.”
Tulsa had arguably its 5 best players, all listed as guards, on the court when it was trying to combat ORU’s full-court press when the Golden Eagles were frantically trying to foul the Golden Hurricane. The lineup included three smaller, scoring guards in Willis, Archie, and Odom, along with Barnes and Carrington, who are more like wing players.
Freshman big man Ian Smikle (6-10) played well in 20 minutes of action, scoring 5 points and grabbing 7 rebounds along with a blocked shot. Most importantly, he had a plus/minus ratio of plus 15. Another post player, Justin Amadi, was plus 10 for second place for Tulsa while playing only 8 minutes.
Good progress has been made by TU since the start of the season with a young squad. The next test for Tulsa will be Saturday at 1 p.m. at Missouri State.
