Tulsa gets past Southeastern Louisiana
To say it was ugly at times would be an understatement. That is what can happen when a team unexpectedly doesn't have a key player, combined with underestimating an opponent.
Playing without point guard Elijah Joiner, who was a late scratch, Tulsa had trouble sometimes even getting the ball up the court against Southeastern Louisiana’s full-court pressure defense. With turnovers flying all over the place, and poor shot selection, Tulsa was in big trouble.
But the Hurricane avoided a disastrous loss by playing well down the stretch, as Brandon Rachal and Darien Jackson scored 20 and 18 points, respectively, to lead Tulsa to a 73-66 victory Wednesday night in front of a crowd of 3,036 at the Reynolds Center.
“I didn’t see it coming,” TU coach Frank Haith, coaching in his 500th career game as head coach, said about not having Joiner for the game. “Eli yesterday practiced, and went hard and looked great. And about an hour before the game, he said his knee was bothering him and he couldn’t play.
“If we would have known beforehand, we could have worked with Reggie (Jones), and had some packages for him. We’ll be prepared before next week.”
Joiner had come off the bench in the previous two games as freshman Isaiah Hill has started. But Joiner, who as a junior has considerable experience in crunch time, was missed, and he also plays alongside Hill at times. With SE Louisiana’s full-court pressure, Joiner could have helped out considerably as TU turned the ball over 17 times.
But with only one true scholarship point guard available, Tulsa struggled mightily after a strong start. Reggie Jones started and scored nine points in 30 minutes, but neither Jones nor any of his teammates were ready to spell Hill, who played 31 minutes, scoring two points on one-of-nine shooting, and had five assists and five turnovers.
“He (Hill) is young, and obviously he showed that tonight,” Haith said. “There will be a lot of film session work with him over the next week. I think you will see him get better because he’s such a coachable kid, but obviously he struggled tonight. He’s just got to cut down the turnovers and make better decisions.
“I’ve had freshman point guards before. It’s not any easy position to be in. I told the guys after the game, we’ve all got to help him.”
Tulsa (4-1) looked like it might win by 50 points early, as the Golden Hurricane got out to a 18-6 lead in the first five minutes. But what looked like a potential blowout with easy baskets ended up turning into a dogfight, as Southeastern Louisiana clearly wasn’t going to go away when the Lions went on a 21-8 run to take a 27-26 lead.
“I kind of felt like we disrespected them,” Haith said of SE Louisiana. “I thought we got too cute. I felt like it came too easy for us. You could see it in our faces. When I say we disrespected them, you could see us getting out of our team play attitude.
“Because we jumped out to the lead, you started to see us do some uncharacteristic things. We need to share the basketball and play team basketball, that’s how we got out to the lead.”
After being tied 34-34 at halftime, Southeastern Louisiana (2-3) led by as many as four points in the second half, the latest being 50-46 midway through the second stanza. But after a few lead changes, TU finally took the lead for good at 60-59 when Jeriah Horne converted on a free throw to finish a three-point play, his first points of the game, with 4:23 remaining.
A score by Rachal with 3:30, followed by a three-pointer by Horne with 2:56 remaining and a reverse layup by Jackson with 2:09 left gave Tulsa some breathing room at 67-59, finishing a 10-0 run. The Lions got back to within four points in the final minute, and had a chance to cut the lead to one with 30 seconds remaining, but missed, and then Horne made four consecutive free throws to finish off the Lions.
“Jeriah has been struggling a little bit, so it was good to see Jeriah make a big shot there down the stretch,” Haith said of Horne, who finished with 10 points.
Rachal and Jackson were huge all game, and came through down the stretch. Rachal had a double-double, adding 11 rebounds as well as two steals and two assists, and made seven-of-11 from the floor, and six-of-eight from the line. He was coming off a career high of 30 points against Austin Peay on Saturday.
Jackson was five-of-seven from the field and eight-of-nine from the line. He finished with seven rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
“Obviously, Brandon and Darien were great again," Haith said. “And they are playing their butts off."
Jackson’s career high of 18 points was his second consecutive game with a career high, as he scored 16 points against Austin Peay. Jackson has been on an upward trend, as he is now averaging 12.2 points after averaging 3.7 last season.
“I would like to thank coach Haith and my roommate Jeriah Horne because the last two years, I was going in and out with my mood swings and stuff,” said Jackson, a 6-foot-3 junior. “And they always told me to trust the process, and my time will come. I’m getting the opportunity to play, and I’ll give it all I’ve got.”
Southeastern Louisiana was 17-16 in 2019, 12-6 in Southland Conference play, and played in the 2018 NIT. So the Lions, led by Tyron Brewer with 17 points, are a respectable team.
But still, SE Louisiana is a team Tulsa shouldn’t have to go down to the stretch with at home. However, Haith is happy to survive the game and move on to play South Carolina State at home next Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m.
“It’s a win. It's a win," Haith said.