Tulsa suffers close home loss to East Carolina

Watching Tulsa's depleted squad almost pull off an amazing win was heartening.

Especially when you see the four players first year TU coach Eric Konkol signed -- Brandon Betson, Jesaiah McWright, Bryant Selebangue and B.B. Knight -- all showing promise.

Betson led the way with 20 points, but Tulsa fell just short in a 62-60 loss Tuesday night to East Carolina in front of about 500 fans in an announced crowd of 3,002 at the Reynolds Center.

Tulsa (5-22, 1-15 AAC) had the few fans that were there on their feet and yelling enthusiastically for much of the game, as the Golden Hurricane, despite suiting up only 9 players, outplayed East Carolina for much of the game.

McWright had a career high 11 points in almost 37 minutes of playing time, providing an energy and showing ability that should serve Tulsa well during the next few seasons.

"He's going to be such a good player here, especially under coach Konkol," Betson said of McWright, who was averaging 1.7 points in 13 minutes per game.

It was good to see players like McWright and B.B. Knight, who haven't gotten much playing time during crunch time this season, show confidence in quality minutes. Both freshmen came through with key free throws in the final 10 seconds of the game to give Tulsa a chance to win.

Perhaps the best story of the night was walk-on Ari Seals, the son of TU great Shea Seals, doing well in his 19 minutes of action. He grabbed 5 rebounds and was playing for much of the critical point of the game. He had only played 19 minutes all season for the Golden Hurricane coming into the game.

"Ari Seals, he earned the right to play," Konkol said. "I thought he did a really nice job, and was really gritty. Some key plays there."

Other players who were in the eight-man rotation for Tulsa were Tim Dalger with 37 plus minutes, Sterling Gaston-Chapman, and Charles Chukwu.

Leading scorer Sam Griffin was on the bench but not suited due to an ankle injury. Keshawn Embery-Simpson and Anthony Pritchard both have ailments and were not on the bench.

East Carolina (14-13, 5-9 AAC) was led by Jaden Walker, who scored a game and career high 24 points while playing all 40 minutes. While hitting 8 of 11 shots from the field. Walker was playing above his previous level of play, with his former career high being 13 points.

Tulsa played good defense for a change, holding the Pirates to 39.6 percent from the field for the game, including 6 of 27 (22 percent) on three-pointers.

The energized underdog Tulsa squad got out to a terrific start, leading by as many as 11 points at 30-19 before settling on a 32-25 halftime lead. TU led 47-43 with 7:43 remaining, but a 5-minute scoring drought had the Golden Hurricane down by 5 with just over 2 minutes left before the drought was broken.

A steal and bucket by Gaston-Chapman with 1:07 left narrowed the margin to 54-52. Tulsa cut the lead to one at 57-56 with 17.5 seconds remaining, but East Carolina made enough free throws to hold on. ECU kept intentionally fouling Tulsa after going up by three points so TU wouldn't have a chance to tie the game.

When ECU finally missed with 5.7 seconds remaining, trailing by two points, McWright rebounded but couldn't get the ball to Betson quick enough, and Betson just failed to get off a three-point attempt before the buzzer, which could have won the game for the Golden Hurricane.

Although not happy with the loss, Betson was proud of the way his team stuck together.

"We came together. It was a real brotherhood out there today," Betson said. "I told our guys at halftime that was the most communication at a high level that we've had all season."

Konkol loved his team's attitude.

"The greatest compliment you can get is that you play really, really hard, and you really, really compete," Konkol said. "We're not into moral victories, but we are about improvement, and we are about seeing things the way we want it done.

"And the guys did it the way we wanted it done, but we just fell a little bit short."

Tulsa finishes its 2023 home season Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. when it hosts Central Florida.