Tulsa cruises past Mississippi Valley State
It was a night of freshmen rules.
Freshmen Tyshawn Archie, Jarred Hall, P.J. Haggerty and Matt Reed combined to score 44 points Tuesday night in Tulsa's 79-50 victory over Mississippi Valley State in front of 2,773 at the Reynolds Center.
Tulsa (7-3) improved to 7-0 at home in a game of balanced scoring where Archie scored 14, Hall had 12, Haggerty had 11, and Reed had 8 points.
When sophomores Isaiah Barnes, Jesaiah McWright and Mo Keita's 13, 4, and 3 points are added to the freshmen's points, the 7 underclassmen scored 64 (81 percent) of Tulsa's points among Tulsa's 10 scholarship players who were available to play.
"This is a great team to grow with. They're all great guys," said second year Tulsa coach Eric Konkol. "This is a fun group to be around. Just ask people to come to 11th and Harvard and grow with us."
An incredible stat was that Tulsa's 7 underclassmen had all of Tulsa's 13 steals for the game, including 10 for its freshmen. Besides leading TU in points, Archie also led Tulsa with 4 steals.
Mississippi Valley State (0-11) has played all of its games on the road this season, so its record is not indicative of its ability. But obviously, the Delta Devils are a team that Tulsa should beat handily. And it did.
"I was very concerned with how much zone we were going to see tonight," Konkol said of the MVSU team that almost exclusively plays zone.
TU showed incredible patience in attacking the zone and not just settling for a bunch of three-pointers. Instead, it worked the ball around and got high percentage shots.
The Golden Hurricane shot a blistering 17 of 24 from the field (70.8 percent) in a first half where Tulsa led 40-24. That included 4 of 5 (80 percent) from beyond the arc.
Tulsa finished 28 of 46 (60.9 percent) from the field, including 7 of 13 (53.8 percent) on three-pointers.
"We talked about not getting baited into shooting threes," Konkol said.
The Delta Devils made only 2 of 14 (14.3 percent) on three-pointers, but shot decently overall at 43.4 percent. Their free throw shooting was appalling, however, as they made just 18.2 percent on just 2 of 11 from the line.
A 17-9 run at the start of the second half extended Tulsa's lead to 57-33 in the first 6 plus minutes of the half.
At that point, upperclassmen Cobe Williams, Jared Garcia and Carlous Williams played very little of the rest of the game, giving way to the youth. Although senior walk-on Ari Seals did get to play the last 4 minutes of the game.
The scholarship upperclassmen Cobe Williams, Jared Garcia and Carlous Williams were very efficient in limited playing time, combining for 7 of 11 (63.6 percent) from the field.
Cobe Williams had 8 assists to only 1 turnover while making 2 of 4 from the floor in 24 minutes. Garcia was 4 of 6, including making his only three-pointer, while scoring 9 points and grabbing 4 rebounds in 11 minutes. Carlous Williams made his only field goal attempt in 18 minutes.
Hall's 12 points were a career high, as the 6-foot-9 freshman was 5 of 8 in 21 minutes.
"He's got such versatility in pushing the break," Konkol said of Hall. "He's getting better and better."
Arecko Gipson scored 19 points, making 9 of 13 shots (69.2 percent), including 1 of 1 from three, and had 8 rebounds, to lead Mississippi Valley State. But the 6-7 Gipson was an amazing 0 of 6 on free throws.
The only down point for Tulsa was getting outrebounded 30-25 by a MVSU team that usually gets outrebounded by 11 per game.
But overall, it was a satisfying game for Tulsa.
The Golden Hurricane next hosts old Missouri Valley Conference rival New Mexico State (5-8) at 7 p.m. on Friday night.