In a heated rivalry game that was ripe to be had, Tulsa didn’t come up with enough plays down the stretch against Oklahoma State.
Sterling Taplin played valiantly, scoring 16 points to lead a Tulsa comeback. But his game-tying contested layup and subsequent tip-in attempt by Will Magnay didn’t go in.
The result was a 71-67 loss to OSU Saturday afternoon in front of a raucous crowd of 7,333 where Tulsa fans greatly outnumbered OSU fans at the Reynolds Center.
“That’s what we wanted. He got a great shot, a great look at it, he just missed it,” TU coach Frank Haith said of Taplin and his last shot. “He played great.”
Tulsa (4-4) came back from a 13-point first half deficit, finally taking the lead at 60-57 on a three-pointer by Jaleel Wheeler with 4:48 remaining.
OSU (7-2) grabbed the lead back at 62-60 on a three by Leyton Hammonds with 3:36 remaining. After another three by Thomas Dziagwa increased the margin to 65-60, Tulsa came back again, as Junior Etou’s put-back with 41.2 seconds tied the game at 67-67.
But Lindy Waters hit a somewhat contested 17-footer with 15.8 seconds remaining to break the tie in what proved to be the game-winner. Waters finished the game with six points.
Facing OSU without its star point guard Jawun Evans (shoulder injury in practice), who was averaging 23.6 points, was a golden opportunity for Tulsa. But other OSU players stepped up and surpassed their previous performances.
“The first game, they rise up,” Haith said of his experience involving teams who lose their star player. “I expected Oklahoma State to play very well without Evans. We just didn’t do what we needed to do to finish the game.”
The biggest difference in the game was in rebounding, where the Cowboys out-rebounded the Golden Hurricane 41-30, including a 17-5 advantage on the offensive glass. Tulsa also had 18 turnovers to OSU’s 16 turnovers. Both teams had 11 turnovers in the first half. Tulsa had 13 assists while OSU had only eight.
“It is very difficult to win when you give up 17 offensive boards and turn the ball over 18 times,” Haith said. “We have only 48 attempts and they had 63 attempts. And that is the difference in the game. Not the last shot that Waters hit, or Sterling’s layup at the end.”
Tulsa trailed by as many as 10 points in the opening minutes of the second half, but never again trailed by double-digits. The Golden Hurricane kept whittling away at the lead, and Taplin tied the game with 5:26 left at 57-57 on a drive and subsequent free throw.
“The crowd motivated us to come back,” Taplin said.
OSU’s aggressive, physical defense gave Tulsa trouble throughout the game, especially in the first half. But as Tulsa figured out that the Cowboys were overplaying and overextending their defense, TU began to have success driving to the basket and either shooting or kicking it out and making extra passes to open players on the perimeter.
“When you play a team that plays defense the way they play, they get up in the passing lanes, they press you, you’ve got to have back cuts and you’ve got to pass the ball,” Haith said. “We were obviously flowing much better in the second half and were stronger with the ball.”
Brandon Averette, averaging only 6.3 points and 11.6 minutes per game coming into the contest, took advantage of Evans’ absence by leading OSU with 17 points in 37 minutes. That was 10 minutes longer than any other OSU player was on the court.
Wheeler hit all three of his three-point attempts in the second half to finish with 15 points in playing a huge role in the Tulsa comeback. But his six turnovers led to Haith making the decision to pull him late in the game when the Hurricane made some costly turnovers.
“I need to be stronger with the ball,” said Wheeler, who was leading Tulsa with 13.8 points coming into the game.
Freshman Lawson Korita started in place of Pat Birt and played well, scoring nine points in 26 minutes. Birt, who has been a bit of an enigma this year, scored only four points in 29 minutes. He has been off on his shooting for most of the season, and his double-digit scoring from last season is a key missing ingredient this season.
But in the end, the rebounding margin is what Haith kept going back to.
“That’s disappointing. We’ve been rebounding the ball well all year,” Haith said. “To me, that’s glaring. That’s something we’ve got to fix.”
