It took some high-pitched cheers from some excited youngsters, to go with clutch play from DaQuan Jeffries and company to ward off a California Baptist team that just wouldn’t go away.

Jeffries scored 19 points and made nine of nine free throws to lead Tulsa to a 82-79 victory over Cal. Baptist Friday afternoon in TU’s second annual Blackboards & Backboards Educational Day that included thousands of local school children among the crowd of 6,330 at the Reynolds Center.

“Obviously, the young folks here was great. Some potential Tulsa students,” said Tulsa coach Frank Haith. “It was great to see them here and cheer. But our fan base was here, too. I thought the energy in the building was good.”

Tulsa (3-0) was down by as many as five points in the second half, and trailed 77-74 with under three and a half minutes left in the game until some timely free throw shooting and tough defense by the Golden Hurricane saved the day.

A 79-79 tie was broken with 1:14 remaining by Elijah Joiner, who made the first of two free throws. After a steal by Curran Scott on the next possession, Jeffries made both of his free throws with 39.7 seconds remaining, and TU led 82-79.

With Haith waving his arms to get the crowd excited, the children and TU faithful were loud on the next possession. Standout point guard Milan Acquaah missed a contested three-pointer with 14 seconds left, and the ball went out-of-bounds with 10.8 seconds on the clock.

But Sterling Taplin was short on both free throws after he was fouled with 7.8 seconds left, and CBU was still alive. Tulsa chose to foul Acquaah with 4.4 seconds remaining. Luckily for Tulsa, both free throws spun out, and Tulsa got possession after a scramble for the ball with 0:01 second remaining, effectively ending the game.

When Tulsa would get down in the second half, it was often Jeffries who answered. Down 72-69, Jeffries nailed a three-pointer with 5:06 remaining. Miss that, and the Lancers might start to extend their lead. Down 75-72, Jeffries made two free throws with 4:18 left.

Down 77-74, two free throws by Elijah Joiner with 3:20 remaining narrowed the margin to a point. Then Jeffries put TU up 78-77 with 2:35 remaining on a put back off a missed drive to the bucket by Taplin.

But to Cal. Baptist’s credit, it kept answering back until almost the end.

CBU (2-1) is playing its first season of NCAA Division-I ball (WAC conference), having gone 28-6 last year in D-II ball while reaching the Elite 8 of D-II postseason tourney. CBU was just coming off a buzzer-beating 40-foot shot by Acquaah to defeat ORU 70-69 Tuesday night at the Mabee Center.

Acquaah, a transfer from Washington State, was terrific, although Tulsa’s defense forced him into very tough shots. As a result, he made only 7 of 24 shots from the field, including 3 of 15 three-pointers. He still managed 20 points, however, and his 11 assists were critical. He also had three steals.

The Lancers hit several wide open three’s off of assists that were due to Tulsa double-teaming Acquaah, who still managed to make some amazing drives to the basket and long threes.

“He’s a tough guard,” Haith said. “We’re going to play other tough guards, so it was a good test to have an opportunity to play a good guard like that this early.

"He also had 11 assists. So that’s where he became tough, because he was able to get into the paint and create for himself. And then when you made decisions to help, he did a good job of finding guys.”

CBU attempted a whopping 42 three-pointers of its 68 field goal attempts. The 13 threes the Lancers made kept them in the game, as did their offensive rebounding with a tall front line.

“The uniqueness of playing a team that takes 42 threes is odd,” Haith said. “With that comes some long rebounds. So it was a good opportunity to play someone like that. We can learn from it. But then they make 13 of them. Very few times do you play a team where they make 13 threes and you win the game.”

Tulsa was outrebounded 42-35, including 13-5 on the offensive boards.

"It was pretty hard with those seven footers down there,” Jeffries said of playing against a front line that featured 6-foot-11 Zach Pirog and 6-10 Glenn Morison, as well as three other players 6-7 or taller. “We really had to play physical in the second half.”

Despite a size disadvantage against CBU, Tulsa’s Martins Igbanu had a terrific game taking it to the Lancers. Igbanu finished with 18 points and six rebounds, including nine points and three rebounds in each half. Haith said the plan was to take it inside because he thought Tulsa was more athletic inside.

Another key player was Joiner, who scored all of his 10 points in his 15 minutes of playing time in the second half. Joiner was playing shooting guard for much of the half with Taplin in the game, something that he hadn’t done much this season. Joiner also tied Igbanu for the team lead in rebounds with six.

Others who scored for TU were Taplin and Chris Barnes with nine, while Scott had eight, Simon Falokun had six, and Jeriah Horne had three.

If Tulsa hadn’t shot the ball decently, it would have lost. TU made 46.2 percent from the field, and made 30 of 40 free throws. That compares with 39.7 percent for CBU, and 12 of 17 from the line.

“I’m very encouraged,” Haith said. “We gritted it out and made some great toughness plays.”

The game was the first of four in the Las Vegas Holiday Invitational. Tulsa’s next game against Little Rock on Monday night at the Reynolds Center is also a part of the tournament. Then Tulsa plays Nevada on the 22nd (Thanksgiving) in Las Vegas, and finishes the tourney othe 23rd against either Southern Illinois or UMass.