Tulsa holds off Jackson State in home opener

This was the Keyshawn Embery-Simpson that Tulsa fans eagerly expected to see when he transferred into the program.

If Embery-Simpson, who scored a career high 20 points to lead the Golden Hurricane to a hard fought 85-79 victory over Jackson State, can play anywhere near like this the rest of the season, TU's hopes have just been raised.

The eagerly awaited home debut for new TU coach Eric Konkol went well all around. A win, some excitement at the end, and an overall improved atmosphere at the game.

Oh, and a much better crowd than anything lately, as 6,859 fans descended upon the Reynolds Center. TU students were vocal on the newly created party deck underneath the basket by the opposing bench. A little good natured heckling is allowed.

"It was awesome. It was exactly the way I remembered the Reynolds Center," said Konkol. "And that's what we can get to, and that's what we want to build."

Of course, Konkol broke into coaching as an assistant under Buzz Peterson in the NIT Championship season of 2001. It was in the middle of a terrific run for TU basketball when the team packed the arena and was regularly winning post season tournament games.

Even Buzz Peterson, the coach Konkol worked for at TU, contacted him this week.

As for Embery-Simpson, the much-heralded transfer hasn't previously lived up to the hype of an unbelievably terrific high school career at Midwest City before he transferred to IMG Academy.

"We've seen some of those moments in practice," Konkol said. "We call him the swiss army knife because he's really played the one through the four for us in this season so far. He just knows the game very, very well.

"I know he's been injury riddled here for the last few years. I'm very, very happy for him with his performance."

Embery-Simpson averaged 7.3 points in 2021, and only 3.6 points last season before missing most of the season due to academics.

Simpson was so strong against Jackson State that he had 6 assists versus no turnovers in over 26 minutes coming off the bench. He was 8 of 13 from the field, including 4 of 8 on three-pointers. He scored 10 points in each half. His previous high at TU was 14 points.

Saturday's game was a major improvement for Embery-Simpson and Tim Dalger, who both failed to score in Tulsa's 73-70 loss at Oregon State Monday night in the season opener.

Tim Dalger scored 18 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in 19 plus minutes. He was 5 of 6 from the field, including 2 of 3 on three-pointers. He made all 6 free throws.

Dalger's 3-pointers are significant because he only made 5 of 22 all last season, when he averaged 4.7 points and 2.9 rebounds. Dalger had looked good shooting in preseason last year, but as the season went on, his shooting and overall performance lacked confidence while his playing time dwindled.

"Tim was really aggressive, and that's the way we want him to be," Konkol said. "When our team needed a boost, it seemed like Tim was able to deliver."

Jackson State (0-2) is coming off an 11-19 season where it played no home non-conference games against a very tough schedule. Jackson State is a much better team than its record would indicate.

"We had a close game with them last year at Louisiana Tech," Konko said. "I told our team, I've got great respect for these guys, and they're going to come at us. And they did."

Amazingly, Konkol's La. Tech team defeated Jackson State 70-68 exactly a year ago today, on Nov. 12 in Ruston, La.

Tulsa led 37-34 at half, and trailed by a point briefly, twice early in the second half before pulling away, leading 73-59 with less than 5 minutes left. But JSU didn't give up, cutting the margin to 76-74 with 1:36 left.

Big man Bryant Selebangue then came through with a power, two-handed dunk with 1:09 remaining, and Tulsa was able to close the game out from there.

Selebangue has been impressive so far this season, scoring 15 in each of his first two games for the Golden Hurricane. He grabbed 9 rebounds at Oregon State, and had a double-double Saturday with 10 rebounds. He was 7 of 9 from the field in 34 plus minutes.

"To get 15 in consecutive nights, I wasn't expecting that," Konkol said of Selebangue. "He had to take a class to finish up his junior college. We had some immigration issues with him getting out of Canada and getting back.

"He missed the entire summer, so we feel like he is just starting and really hitting his stride here with both conditioning and really getting to know everything we are trying to do here. He's a wonderful person. He's so grateful and loves being here at TU."

Tulsa was able to close out the game in great part to free throw shooting. TU made 20 of 25 from the line (80 percent).

Anthony Pritchard had 10 points in 30 minutes at point guard, while Sam Griffin and Brandon Betson each had 9 points.

Griffin drew a lot of double teams after scoring a career high 29 points in the season opener. With Griffin a marked man, Tulsa had to do a good job sharing the basketball and taking advantage of the mismatches JSU's overplaying Griffin presented.

Next up for TU is Loyola Chicago on Thursday night at Myrtle Beach.