Oregon State is sick of seeing Jeriah Horne. And with good reason.
Playing against Oregon State for the fourth time in just over a year, Horne saved his best for last, leading Tulsa with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the Golden Hurricane's 64-58 victory over the Beavers on Monday night in front of a Reynolds Center crowd of 2,749.
This is a significant win for Tulsa (2-1), defeating an Oregon State team that went to the Elite Eight last season.
"I did the best I could to inform my team what we were going up against," Horne said. "They're strong and physical and big. Something we hadn't seen so far. I'm just proud of the way we responded."
In Horne's year away from Tulsa last season playing for Colorado, he scored 16 points against Oregon State in a blowout win, 10 points in a close win, and 6 points in a two-point loss in the Pac-12 Tournament championship game.
The most challenging part of the game for Horne was overcoming early foul trouble, picking up his second foul with 18:09 left in the half. Many coaches would sit a star player out the remainder of the half with two fouls.
"I normally don't," Haith said of playing players with two fouls in the first half. "I didn't want him to get a tired foul. So I wanted to keep him in and out. I watched the media timeouts, and was going to get him in right before and let him play through, and I was going to bring him back, and I was going to do that the rest of the half. It was a blessing he didn't foul."
With no points at the time, Horne responded to being put in for short stints in the first half by making every shot he took, scoring 7 points and grabbing 3 rebounds in 9:48 of playing time in the half where TU and Oregon State wound up tied 34-34 at halftime.
"I think that's just a testament to the relationship we have," Horne said of Haith. "My best friend. As soon as I got those two fouls, I said coach, I'm good, will you trust me to continue to put me in and take me out? Coach did a great job with it.
"It was a blast. I just had so much fun. It's a blessing to be able to play with coach and get wins like this."
Horne came out in the second half and picked up his third foul at the 15:10 mark, but committed no more fouls the rest of the game. He drained 3 of his 5 three-point attempts and made some very difficult, contested shots. Horne wasn't going to get many open looks.
Sam Griffin again was strong, scoring 13 points and providing Tulsa with the threat at either point guard or shooting guard that teams can't ignore.
Against Oregon State's big, physical lineup, Tulsa started Rey Idowu, and he came up big with 11 points and 8 rebounds in over 26 minutes. Idowu scored Tulsa's first four points and had a steal just over a minute into the game.
"I challenged Rey to be better," Haith said. "The first two games, I think Rey hasn't played up to his potential. We told him tonight was going to be the biggest challenge he is going to play against.
"I challenged him, and he stepped up to the challenge and played really aggressively, made some big shots, and he rebounded. We need him to have a presence like that."
Haith was also pleased with juco transfers Tim Dalger and Nikita Konstantynovskyi. Dalger started and had 6 points and 3 rebounds in over 26 minutes. Konstantynovskyi had 2 points and 7 rebounds in over 13 minutes of playing time.
"We got some really good play out of some guys that we needed to see be better," Haith explained. "I thought Tim was really aggressive. Not necessarily with his points, but with his length, his size, and allowing us to play bigger.
"Nikita was outstanding. His rebounding, his physicality. He's 6-10, he gives us a presence in there. Both of those guys we've been asking and needing more from them. Both those guys I thought gave us a nice lift."
Playing a lineup mostly of Horne, Griffin, Idowu, Darien Jackson and Keyshawn Embery-Simpson down the stretch, Tulsa was able to look like it was going to pull away from the Beavers.
Tulsa trailed by two to Oregon State (1-2) at 46-44 with around 13 minutes left. But then the Golden Hurricane went on a 16-5 run to lead 60-51 with 4:20 remaining.
But a long, off-balance and heavily guarded three-pointer that Jarod Lucas threw up just as the shot clock expired closed the TU lead to 60-56 with 2:31 left. And it was game on again.
"I think it's funny, because I've seen him shoot and make crazy shots like that a bunch of times," Horne said of Lucas, Oregon State's leading returning scorer and second leading scorer last year for the Beavers. "So when he made it, it was like, dang, good shot.
"It was like, we've got to finish this off."
Oregon State cut the margin to 60-58 with 47.2 seconds remaining, but made the odd decision to foul with 40 seconds left to get its foul count up to six in the half - just one away from being in the bonus.
Idowu was fouled in the act of shooting with 21.3 seconds left, and he made both free throws, giving Tulsa a little bit of breathing room at 62-58. A miss by the Beavers and rebound by Jackson, and Oregon State sent Jackson to the line with 14.9 seconds left. He drained both, increasing the lead to 64-58.
Maurice Calloo was a 6-10 nightmare for TU, mostly on the perimeter. Looking like a NBA first-round pick in the first half, Calloo had 14 of his 20 points in the opening half.
Holding Calloo to just six points in the second half, and holding him scoreless in the final 12:57 of the game was a major factor in defeating the Beavers. Rodrigue Andela was the only other Oregon State player in double figures with 10 points. Lucas finished with 9 points.
"They've got three returning starters off a team that went to the Elite Eight," said TU coach Frank Haith. "They're tough, they've got size. A win like that today was big for us."
