Tulsa holds off Wichita State in first round of AAC Tournament

Darien Jackson and Jeriah Horne both notched double-doubles for Tulsa, helping lift the Hurricane over Wichita State, 73-67, in the first round of the American Athletic Conference tournament on Thursday.

"Our kids competed and these two guys (Jackson and Horne), these two seniors came in here, and they weren't going to let us lose," said Tulsa head coach Frank Haith. "They found a way to continue to encourage and motivate our young people. It was a great, great win for us."

Jackson scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for TU (11-19). Horne had 17 points and 10 boards.

Sam Griffin led all scorers with 21 points, while Rey Idowu added 10 points and nine rebounds.

"I'm very proud of our kids," Haith said. "We fought from the very beginning of this game. I know we led about 37 minutes of this game. Wichita State made a tremendous run, which we knew they would. They're a tough team."

Ricky Council IV had 19 points for the Shockers (15-13). Tyson Etienne added 14 points and Qua Grant had 13 points.

Tulsa built a 16-point lead at 48-32 with 12:40 remaining before Wichita State used an 8-0 run to close the gap, but Darien Jackson’s layup with nine minutes to play stopped the bleeding and gave TU a 50-40 advantage.

The Shockers eventually got within three points at 54-51, but a big three-pointer from Sam Griffin jump-started a 9-2 run that put TU back in control at 65-55 with 1:16 left.

The Hurricane faces SMU in the quarterfinal round at 6 pm on Friday.