Tulsa drops Mayor's Cup battle

Everybody knew that ORU's Max Abmas would be the best player on the floor coming into the Mayor's Cup contest.

Abmas didn't disappoint his fans.

With the bravado of a true star college player, Abmas scored 28 points as ORU obliterated Tulsa 77-66 Saturday afternoon in front of 4,662 at the Reynolds Center.

Abmas, the dynamic little point guard who led ORU to the Sweet 16 and within a shot of the Elite 8 in 2021, was too much for Tulsa to handle. With a career average of 20.1 points per game, Abmas was electric.

And it wasn't just Abmas. ORU (6-3) was clearly the better team. They hit the shots. Made the plays. Got key offensive rebounds.

Abmas foreshadowed the disastrous second half for TU when he hit a highly contested buzzer beater at the end of the first half that broke a tie and gave ORU a 36-33 halftime lead.

Tulsa (2-5) was able to tie the game up at 40-40 early in the half, but a 12-0 run, fueled by who else, Abmas, put ORU up 52-41, and TU never recovered.

When Abmas hit his second consecutive three-pointer after that decisive run where TU called a timeout, he was reveling in it, yelling to the TU crowd.

ORU went through a stretch in the second half where it seemed unstoppable, getting seemingly countless offensive rebounds and capitalizing.

The Golden Hurricane finally got going late in the second half, cutting the margin to 67-64 with 3:38 on a bucket by Bryant Selebangue. But a traditional 3-point play by Abmas, driving to the basket and drawing the foul, made it 70-64 with 3:24 remaining.

That bucket seemed to rattle TU, as the Golden Hurricane didn't score another point until 5.9 seconds remained. A big three-pointer by a wide open Carlos Jurgens with 2:13 remaining put ORU up 9 at 73-64, and it was game over.

"Max Abmas is one of those types of players," said Tulsa coach Eric Konkol. "He made the big and-one, a big shot, and made the play that turned into Jurgens hitting a big corner three. He just made play after play after play after play."

Selebangue was Tulsa's best player against ORU, scoring 15 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Guards Brandon Betson, Anthony Pritchard, and Sam Griffin added 14, 12 and 11 points, respectively. But the rest of the team did not do much, offensively.

"I thought Selebangue did a really nice job," Konkol said. "We have to find a way to get him the ball more."

Even Griffin, who averages 16.2 points, was only 4 of 16 from the field, including 1 of 6 from beyond the arc.

Contrast that with Abmas, who was 11 of 22, including 5 of 14 on three-pointers. And when ORU has a point guard that rarely turns over the ball (4 assists, 1 turnover), and plays all 40 minutes of the game, it is easy to see why ORU won.

"I don't take him out. I get nervous when I take him out," said ORU coach Paul Mills of Abmas playing the entire game.

The turnover battle was won by ORU, 13-5.

Amazingly, ORU was held to 9 of 36 on three-pointers, overall. But they were 24 of 42 (57 percent) on two-pointers, which was enough.

"The Mayor's Cup for us is just so big for us," Abmas said. "We just wanted to keep the Mayor's Cup where it belongs."

That ORU believes and has shown the Mayor's Cup belongs at ORU is disheartening for Tulsa fans.

Although a disappointing loss, Konkol knows it is a long season, and believes Tulsa will get better.

"Improvement isn't a straight line. There are ups and downs," Konkol said. "We can't stop. We just have to keep getting better and better every day."

Tulsa next plays Detroit Mercy at home at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night.