Tulsa runs past UTSA, 107-78
It was an old school game of high scoring, gold jerseys, and Tulsa dominating.
P.J. Haggerty scored 25 points to lead Tulsa to a 107-78 victory on Wednesday night over UTSA in front of a crowd of 3,518 at the Reynolds Center.
For Tulsa (10-7, 1-4 AAC), wearing gold jerseys for the first time in years, it was the highest point total against a Division-I team since Tulsa beat Jackson State 107-49 on Jan. 2, 2001 when Tulsa coach Erik Konkol was a graduate assistant for the 2001 NIT Champions.
TU had beaten Prairie View A&M 115-46 in the previous game on Dec. 30, 2000. The last time Tulsa exceeded 107 points in conference play was on Feb. 27, 1997 when Tulsa won 128-84 over Billy Tubbs at TCU while in the WAC.
"This was an absolute total team effort from everybody that appeared in the game, the guys on the bench," Konkol said. "The students being back. We say thank you to them. We had 700 of them here today."
Ironically, Tulsa's last 100-point win in a D-I game came in a 100-96 victory over UTSA at the Reynolds Center on Nov. 28, 2017. The Golden Hurricane did score 107 points against NCAA Division-II NSU on March 4, 2021, and lost 111-104 to Colorado State in overtime on Dec. 21, 2019 at the BOK Center.
UTSA (7-11, 1-4) came out firing, using a fast-paced tempo to stay with Tulsa for the first part of the first half. Tulsa finally pulled ahead by 12 at 44-32, only to see the game tied at 44-44 a little more than two minutes later. Still, Tulsa managed to go into halftime with a 53-48 lead.
The Golden Hurricane asserted itself to start the second half, and the game was never really in question after the first few minutes after halftime.
UTSA got out to a 5-0 and 13-7 lead before Tulsa got going. Freshman Tyshawn Archie then came off the bench to get TU going, scoring 10 of his 17 points in the first half in a stretch where Tulsa went ahead 27-24.
"He gave us a big spark off the bench," Konkol said of Archie.
Haggerty's old-fashioned three-point play gave TU the lead for good at 30-27, and from then, it was off to the races.
Amazingly, Haggerty's free throw was the only free throw TU attempted in the first half, while the Roadrunners made 12 of 13 free throws in the first half, which was a big part in them staying in the game. Tulsa finally got to the line more in the second half, finishing 19 of 23 on free throws, while UTSA finished 22 of 26.
A big reason Tulsa was able to pull away in the second half, besides its strong offense, was its defense. TU held UTSA, a prolific three-point shooting team, to 2 of 18 (11.1 percent) on three-pointers in the second half, and UTSA made only 6 of 31 (19.4 percent) for the game.
The Golden Hurricane was red hot on three-pointers in the game, making 16 of 29 (55.2 percent), including 10 of 16 (62.5 percent) in the first half. Tulsa made 36 of 61 (59 percent) from the field for the game. UTSA came into the game averaging 79.2 points per game, including scoring 101 points in an overtime loss at Memphis. The Roadrunners averaged 10.1 three-pointers on 34.7 percent shooting for the season.
"We'd like to be able to play with a quicker pace, but we also understand that some of that depends on the team you play," Konkol said. "You may play a team that's a much lower possession game where you can get them to play a little bit faster. But UTSA is a fast playing team.
"And so we had said that, in transition and after, because they have so many guys crashing (the boards), we told our team that you'll be rewarded by getting the rebound, because there's going to be opportunities to break, because they send so many guys to the glass. So it was absolutely part of the game plan that, get a rebound and run and see what you can find."
The amazing thing about the quick tempo and extra possessions in the game was how well TU took care of the basketball.
"To see 24 assists and 7 turnovers, that's just awesome," Konkol said. "The guys really shared it well tonight, and they were able to deliver and make the baskets."
The first half saw Haggerty lead the way with 16 points, while Isaiah Barners had 14, and Cobe Williams had 8. After Haggerty's game-high 25 points, Williams, Archie, and Barnes all finished with 17 points.
"We've got some guards that like to push the pace, and it forces us to run with the wings and the bigs running, and it's really worked for us," Barnes said. "I personally enjoy it. That's what I talked about with Konkol in my recruitment anyway, he said he liked to play fast."
It was the first time Tulsa had scored 100 or more points in a conference game since joining the AAC for the 2014-1015 season. It was only the fifth time in AAC history that Tulsa has scored at least 90 points in conference play.
Of course, no team will rival what the 1984 team did as far as scoring 100 points, when the Golden Hurricane went 27-4 on the Nolan Richardson coached team led by Steve Harris and Ricky Ross. The 1984 team scored 100 points or more 8 times, all at the Convention Center. And fans could redeem their ticket stubs for free Whoppers at Burger King.
To emphasize how much things have changed since the 1984 season with no three-pointers and no shot clock, it is almost a shock to score 100 points in a single game now.
"A hundred points is crazy, I ain't gonna lie," Haggerty said.
Tulsa next plays at SMU (12-5, 3-1) in Dallas Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.