Tulsa puts away Tulane, 89-82
Most Tulsa fans probably wouldn’t have believed that the Golden Hurricane would win four of its first five games in conference play this season after losing almost their entire team to graduation. Especially when they saw the early schedule.
But Tulsa's two returnees from its NCAA team of 2016 - Sterling Taplin and Pat Birt - are providing key plays to spur on the strong start in AAC play against previously tough competition.
Tulane clearly wasn’t the caliber of UConn, Houston, Memphis and Temple - Tulsa’s first four conference opponents. But TU couldn’t just show up and expect to win against the Green Wave.
Taplin and Birt scored 24 and 19 points, respectively, Wednesday night to spark Tulsa to an 89-82 win over a struggling Tulane team in front of a crowd of 3,870 at the Reynolds Center.
“I’m really pleased, obviously,” TU coach Frank Haith said about the start in conference play. “When I saw our schedule at the beginning, what we had, it was a little daunting. I’m obviously very encouraged and pleased with what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
Tulsa (10-7, 4-1 AAC) looked lost early in falling behind 15-3. It looked like the Golden Hurricane was not pumped up to the level of play that was needed against their first four conference opponents.
The fact that Jaleel Wheeler picked up his second foul in the first two minutes of the game didn't help matters. Seeing him pick up his first foul on the opening tip was bizarre.
With Wheeler, Tulsa’s second leading scorer at 10.9 points per game, lost for the remainder of the first half, the outlook wasn’t promising.
But no worries, freshman Lawson Korita came off the bench to score the next five points, and Tulsa was all of a sudden in the midst of a 21-4 run to go up 24-19.
“We got down early in the game because we turned the ball over and they were scoring in transition,” Haith said. “Our transition defense wasn’t great, and they scored on a couple of second shots. Once we cleaned that up in the first half, we had some momentum. We got stops, we got rebounds, and I thought we were playing well offensively.”
“Stay focused and dig in on defense. Those were our priorities," Taplin said of Tulsa‘s response to getting down early. “Dig in on defense and rebound. We just had to focus on that.”
Taplin scored 12 points in each half, including the final bucket on a drive with 1.4 seconds remaining in the first half, to send TU to a 42-28 halftime lead. When Tulsa extended the lead to 51-32 early in the second half, the game had the look of a blowout.
But nobody told Tulane that.
Tulane (4-14, 1-5) never gave up under first year coach Mike Dunleavy. The former NBA coach and player got the Green Wave to rise up and whittle the lead down to five points at 63-58 with around eight minutes left. Cameron Reynolds led the Tulane comeback with 11 of his team-high 20 points in the second half.
But Tulsa responded and never let it get closer, despite the Green Wave throwing in some ridiculous three-pointers in the closing minutes that could have made things testy. Fortunately for TU, it made 18 of 22 second half free throws to prevent the game from going down to the wire.
“As a young team, we’ve got to get better once we have that type of momentum just to put the pedal down,” Haith said. “I thought we allowed some things to happen. We’ve got to be more consistent with what we need to do on both ends to finish those types of game.”
When things were getting a little tight, it was clear that Taplin stepped up, just as it is becoming clear that he is the leader of the team.
Need a key play? Just have Taplin drive to bucket. Dish it to on open man, or make an acrobatic driving bucket.
Either way, he makes things happen. His career high of 24 points was accompanied by six rebounds and five assists.
“Sterling, he’s growing. He’s really, really maturing. He’s embracing the responsibilities we’re putting on him,” Haith said of Taplin, who is now averaging 15.4 points in conference play. “We really don’t ask him to score a lot, but tonight, you have him go out and get 24, that’s really good to see.”
Also good to see is Birt coming around offensively after his early season funk where he went on extended dry spells from the field. When Birt is hitting shots, as he did against Tulane, Tulsa is clearly a different team.
Wheeler overcame his first half foul trouble to score all of his 11 points in the second half. His scoring output helped overcome only five points from Junior Etou, who came into the game leading Tulsa in scoring at 12.2 points per game.
“It is good to know you can win a game when you’re leading scorer doesn’t have a good night,” Haith said of Etou, who did finish with a team-high nine rebounds.
The strong start in conference play by no means has Haith satisfied.
“I think that if you have some success, now you want more,” Haith said. “There’s no question with this team, there’s still another level we can get to.”