Watching Tulsa defeat UTSA 100-96 was like watching a throwback game to the Fairgrounds Pavilion in the early 1970’s or late 1960’s in the Ken Hayes era.
The way Tulsa and UTSA were exchanging buckets in a fast-paced game, the best way to tell the difference from the Pavilion days, apart from the obvious style statements, would have been the three-point line.
Junior Etou scored a team-high 20 points, including 13 in a first half where Tulsa led 53-45 going into halftime, to lead the Golden Hurricane to a second consecutive home victory in front of a crowd of 3,237 at the Reynolds Center Tuesday night.
“That’s how we like playing. We like running all the time,” said Martins Igbanu, who finished with 10 points on five of seven shooting from the field, and a team-high nine rebounds, including four offensive boards. “When the game is fast, it helps us out.”
To highlight what a feat it was for Tulsa to score 100 points in a regular season, non-overtime, Division-1 game, the last time it occurred was on Jan. 2, 2001 when Tulsa defeated Jackson State 107-49 at the Reynolds Center with Buzz Peterson as the coach. TU had topped the 100-mark the previous game in a 115-46 win over Prairie View A&M. It was only the fourth time in 300 Reynolds Center games.
UT-San Antonio (4-3) is a much better team than those 2001 opponents, and their fast-paced style suits their nickname of the Roadrunners. Tulsa led for almost the entire game, and held a double-digit lead which went as high as 13 points for much of the second half.
But UTSA stubbornly wouldn’t go away, cutting the lead to four points with 2:22 left on a three-pointer by freshman phenom Jhivvan Jackson, who came into the game averaging 15.3 points per game coming off the bench. The Puerto Rican guard who played in high school for Euless (Tx.) Trinity scored 29 points, including 14 of 15 from the line.
“He’s a terrific scorer. He was dynamite tonight,” TU coach Frank Haith said of Jackson. “I thought he was terrific. Made some tough shots. He knows how to put the ball in the hole.”
Tulsa (4-3) was able to hit enough free throws, including seven of its last eight, to put away the Roadrunners. When Etou hit two free throws with 1:57 remaining on the next possession, Tulsa boosted the lead to six, and never again led by less than five until UTSA hit a three-pointer with three seconds remaining for the final score of the game.
“They make two big bombs, but our guys weathered the storm, they stayed focused, and got the ball to the right guys, and we made free throws and didn’t turn it over,” Haith said of the two three-pointers that cut the margin from 10 to four points in a 30 second span.
The first half was unbelievably fast-paced, as both teams were scorching the nets. Tulsa hit 50 percent (21 of 42) from the field and from beyond the arc (7 of 14), while the Roadrunners hit 47.1 percent from the field and 41.2 percent on three-pointers (7 of 17) in the half.
Tulsa finished the game 33 of 68 from thee field (48.5 percent) and 10 of 25 on three-pointers (40 percent). UTSA finished 29 of 64 (45.3 percent) and 15 of 37 on threes (40.5 percent).
The biggest difference in the game was in rebounding, where a Tulsa team that had problems rebounding all year (38.7 to 34.2 per game) and, in particular, on offensive rebounds, did a complete turnaround.
Tulsa finished with a 15-5 edge in offensive boards, and a 47-27 advantage in overall rebounding.
“We had to come out and be aggressive on the offensive glass,” said Etou, who finished with five rebounds, including two offensive boards. Coming into the game, Etou led Tulsa in scoring at 16.3 and rebounds at 6.3 per contest.
Sterling Taplin played an outstanding game at point guard with 18 points, five rebounds, a steal, two assists and zero turnovers. Curran Scott added 16 points, and made seven of eight free throws in the second half.
Although Haith was pleased with his team offensively, saying “I thought we were good all night,” he was less than pleased with his defense.
“Defensively, we didn’t play well,” Haith said. “We didn’t guard the ball well, and obviously they made a lot of threes.”
The Golden Hurricane played better defense in the second half, especially on Jackson, although the game deteriorated into a foul shooting contest late in the game. UTSA made 23 of 27 free throws, including 17 of 21 in the second half.
After scoring 16 first half points on 5 of 9 shooting from the field, Jackson was only 1 of 3 from the field in the second half. But he did connect on 10 of 11 free throws in the half.
This year’s Tulsa team has shown considerable firepower, averaging 82.3 points per game. Last year the Golden Hurricane only averaged 67.4 points per contest.
It will be interesting to see if TU gets to a 100 points again this season, although it would be tough to match the 1971 Tulsa team’s four 100-point regulation games at the Pavilion, including three against major college competition. The team led by Dana Lewis (first round NBA draft pick) and Steve Bracey (three NBA seasons, including a championship ring for Golden State in 1975) finished 17-9 in the then tough Missouri Valley.
The 2017-2018 Golden Hurricane will have to go a ways to reach the heights of scoring that the full-court press triggered 1984 team reached. Led by Steve Harris and Ricky Ross, Tulsa (27-4) reached the 100-point mark eight times at the Convention Center while leading the nation in scoring. Tulsa fans received free Whoppers at Burger King with their ticket stub that year. Nolan Richardson's teams scored 100 points five other times in his other four years at TU.
Tulsa’s next game is at former MVC rival Illinois State at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Redbirds handed Tulsa its worst loss of the season, 84-68, on Dec. 19 in Conway, South Carolina.
