Tulsa falls to Lamar in the season opener, 74-67

In an extremely disappointing debut, Tulsa almost came up with an amazing comeback. But almost was as close as the Golden Hurricane would get.

Sterling Taplin led Tulsa with 18 points but TU dropped its season opener 74-67 to Lamar on Friday afternoon in front of 7,431 fans at the Reynolds Center.

The high-pitched scream of the over 4,100 local students who made the trek to the game for Blackboards and Backboards Educational Day didn’t see Tulsa at its best. Most of the children weren’t there at the end, having to go back to school, and missed TU’s attempt to complete the comeback, although a small number stayed until the end.

Tulsa (0-1) never led in the game and trailed by as many as 16 points at 49-33 with 15 minutes remaining. But spirited play got the Golden Hurricane on a 12-0 run and to within one point after a forceful dunk through traffic by DaQuan Jeffries with 5:37 left narrowed the margin to 62-61.

Junior Etou missed a three-point attempt (his only non free-throw attempt of the game, finishing with two points) that would have given Tulsa the lead with 4:08 left and Tulsa trailing 64-63, and Taplin missed a layup with 3:35 remaining that would have also given Tulsa the lead.

After that point, TU had trouble getting stops on defense, and never could close the gap. Still, Tulsa hung in until almost the end, trailing only by three points with 21.9 seconds left.

The Golden Hurricane got out to a bad start that was expounded on by both Etou and DaQuan Jeffries only playing five minutes apiece in the first half due to foul trouble.

“Junior got three offensive fouls in the game. I think mentally he was taken out,” said TU coach Frank Haith of the 6-foot-7 Etou, Tulsa's leading scorer last season at 12.6 points per game. “We’re not going to win many games when he takes one shot.”

Perhaps the most disappointing statistic of the game was Tulsa being outrebounded 42-28 by a small Lamar team, including a horrid 14-4 disadvantage on offensive rebounds.

“When you give up that many offensive rebounds and loose balls, they were much tougher than us,” said Haith. “In a game, that’s the toughest thing to say, that they were tougher than you, and they were. They were tougher than us.”

“We lost a lot of 50-50 balls,” said 6-8 TU forward Martins Igbanu, who came off the bench to score 12 points and grab seven rebounds in 23 minutes. “Toughness is really what made us lose the game.”

Jeffries recovered nicely from his first half foul trouble, finishing with 10 of his 12 points in the second half, as well as adding two steals and a block in the half, sparking the comeback. It was a strong debut for the 6-5 juco transfer from Western Texas and former ORU starter.

Much-touted freshman Elijah Joiner did some nice things and wasn’t afraid to assert himself in 24 minutes of playing time. Joiner had gone in for a fast break layup with approximately 4:20 left, and appeared to be fouled while the shot was blocked and went out of bounds. No foul was called, but Tulsa got the ball back.

Joiner finished with eight points (3-of-6 shooting from the field), one rebound, one assist, and three turnovers. He was in the game for most of the time during the comeback and down the stretch.

Curran Scott started and played 22 minutes, but was held to four points on 1-of-4 shooting. He averaged 10.5 points as a freshman for Charlotte in 2016 before transferring to Tulsa.

Also disappointing was Corey Henderson only scoring four points in 26 minutes (1-of-4 from the field), and Jaleel Wheeler, who started, only scoring three points (1-of-2 from the field) in 18 minutes.

Geno Artison had five points and two rebounds in 13 minutes - all in the first half while subbing for Etou and Jeffries.

Taplin finished 7-of-18 from the field, and had one assist and two turnovers in 30 minutes from his point guard position. Tulsa had only eight assists all game.

“I think we just had jitters. The first real game that we’re able to come out and play before a pretty decent crowd,” said Taplin of the poor start that had TU trailing 37-28 at halftime. “People were nervous.”

Tulsa only made 5-of-19 from beyond the arc and finished at 45.1 percent from the field. Lamar made 7-of-24 three-pointers and shot 42.4 percent from the field. The Cardinals made 17 of 21 free throws, while Tulsa only made 16 of 23 from the line.

Nick Garth scored 23 points to lead an experienced Lamar team that had four of its top six scorers from last season in the lineup. The Cardinals are picked to finish second in the Southland Conference after winning 19 games in 2017.

The only thing Haith was pleased with was the crowd.

“That was great. Hats off to our administration that worked hard to put this together,” Haith said. “That means lot. I know our guys appreciated it, too. We didn’t do our part today in terms of bringing the game to them, and that’s really disappointing.”