One of the greatest comebacks in Tulsa history wound up being a crushing loss, with its best players on the bench playing against a Colorado State team with a full squad.
Jeriah Horne led Tulsa with a career-high 28 points in a triple overtime thriller where TU lost 111-104 to Colorado State. The game was the first of a Saturday afternoon doubleheader, with OSU playing Minnesota Saturday afternoon in the second game at the BOK Center in front of 4,979 fans.
Tulsa (8-4) pulled off a seemingly impossible comeback in regulation, down eight points with 49 seconds left, and even had a shot to win it at the end of regulation. But it wasn't meant to be.
Horne, Darien Jackson and Brandon Rachal all fouled out in overtime, with Jackson's and Rachal's fouls being very questionable, to say the least. Without the trio in the third overtime playing against a CSU team that had nobody foul out, and only one player with even four fouls, it was evident TU was going to have a tough time picking up the win.
"I'd like to think if we just had one of those guys, Darien, or Brandon, or Jeriah, just one of those guys, I felt good about us being able to finish the game," said TU coach Frank Haith.
Colorado State (8-6) is a team Tulsa shouldn't have to go to overtime with when playing in Tulsa. The Rams finished 12-20 last season playing out of the Mountain West conference.
But Tulsa's gutty comeback in regulation was absolutely brilliant, and was started by a drive to the basket, down 76-68, where Elijah Joiner was fouled after making his shot with 48.3 seconds remaining. After the ensuing missed free throw was rebounded by TU, Martins Igbanu scored with 37.9 seconds left to cut the margin to 76-72.
The Rams made four-of-six of its free throws after Tulsa played the fouling game, but a three-pointer by Lawson Korita with 32.4 seconds left, and a two-pointer by Joiner with 23.5 seconds left put Tulsa in position to tie the game. Which Horne did at 80-80 on a three with 9.8 seconds remaining.
"The whole time, we just kept saying, it's not over, keep fighting, keep fighting. And I feel that's what our team did," Horne said of the comeback.
Another three-pointer by Horne gave Tulsa an early three-point lead at 87-84 in overtime, but he fouled out with 2:39 left in the first overtime, just 21 seconds after his last three. Korita made two of three free throws at the 2:15 mark after being fouled attempting a three, and Tulsa held a 89-86 lead until a three-pointer by Kendle Moore with 21.4 seconds left tied the game at 89-89.
In a painful ending to the first overtime, Joiner's missed floater in the lane hung on the rim and fell off at the buzzer.
The second overtime went back and forth, with Korita putting Tulsa ahead 100-99 on a four-point play with 1:08 remaining where he made a three-pointer and was fouled. But Jackson fouled out on a phantom foul with 57.3 seconds left, and Colorado State hit one-of-two free throws to tie the game at 100.
Isaiah Stevens hit a floater with 2.6 seconds left that seemingly sealed the game for the Rams. But then things got a little rowdy.
CSU center Nico Carvacho and Igbanu almost got into a fight at the ensuing timeout, with Igbanu protecting Haith from verbal abuse from Carvacho. Igbanu had to be restrained by several of his teammates.
"Their big man is jawing at me, which is disappointing. He said something to me, and that's where Martins stepped in," Haith said. "I said something to the official about an illegal screen, and he said something to me. No player should ever talk to a coach."
The 6-foot-11 Carvacho, who finished with 15 points, 18 rebounds and only three fouls, was assigned to guard Rachal on the inbounds pass. But he would have been better off guarding Igbanu.
Igbanu and Rachal then pulled off the play of the game, as Rachal ran the baseline to get off a perfect, length of the court pass past Carvacho to Igbanu, who out-leaped three CSU defenders by the basket and put in the the shot with 0.6 seconds remaining to tie the game at 102-102.
But Rachal's fifth foul with 4:15 left in the third overtime doomed Tulsa. Although TU again tied the game at 104-104 with 3:20 left on two Joiner free throws, TU clearly didn't have the manpower left to go against a full Colorado State squad.
Haith clearly felt that the foul count played a major role int he game.
"I thought that was the key to game," Haith said of the players fouling out. "We had four guys on the bench, and those four guys are important guys, guys who would be in the game in late game situations. Guys who we needed to make the tough plays were all on the bench. Guys we had on the bench would have made those plays. And they had their important guys in there. It was tough. But that was the difference in the game."
The game had the feeling of an early round NCAA game because of the venue, although clearly at this point, neither team, nor the officials, are quite ready to go dancing.
Horne really stepped up to the challenge after an extremely disappointing outing in a lopsided loss at Arkansas a week earlier where Horne only played five early minutes with no points.
"Jeriah just played well. He didn't do some things that he needed to do in that game (against Arkansas), but he played well here tonight," Haith said. "Jeriah was outstanding. He was terrific. Hopefully he can build on it. A lot of things we can build from him and some other guys who did well."
Horne led the charge of six TU players in double figures. Igbanu had 17 points, Korita had 16, Joiner had 15 points with nine assists and nine rebounds, Jackson had 12 points and three steals, and Rachal had 12 points and eight rebounds.
Stevens led Colorado State with 26 points and 12 assists, while Moore had 23 points, including six-of-10 on three-pointers.
Statistically, it was amazing Tulsa was even in the game, since TU was outrebounded 55-36 and allowed CSU to shoot 51.4 percent from the field, compared with TU shooting 44 percent. TU did win the turnover battle 21-13, however.
In the end, it was a shame both teams weren't at full strength for the end of the thrilling contest.
