Tulsa Men Push Past Arkansas-Little Rock

James Woodard scored a game-high 19 points as the Tulsa Golden Hurricane pulled away from the UALR Trojans in the second half for a 78-64 victory in front of 3,780 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. The game was played Tuesday night after being postponed Saturday and Sunday due to inclement weather that prevented UALR from traveling to Tulsa.

Tulsa improved to 3-6 on the season with its second consecutive victory, while UALR dropped to 3-5.

"We did some good things. You look at the box score and we got contributions across the board. Everybody was in the scoring column except Stevie and he wasn't really out there long enough to do much," Tulsa coach Danny Manning said. "It was a good overall effort. We're disappointed in the rebounding as they outrebounded us by one, but we did some good things in the second half. We had 11-second chance points where we had zero in the first half. We also scored more points off turnovers and that helped jump start us in the second half and come out with a little more energy and fire."

Fellow sophomore Shaquille Harrison added 13 points and tied his season-high with seven assists. Junior Rashad Smith, despite foul trouble, added seven points and a team-high six rebounds for the Hurricane. UALR's Will Neighbour led the Trojans with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Trailing by two points at halftime, the Hurricane outscored the Trojans by 16 points in the second half, 52-36, as Tulsa used a 16-0 scoring run midway through the second half for a 57-41 lead with 8:54 remaining in the contest.

Woodard knocked down a three-pointer to begin the second 20 minutes, giving the Hurricane its first lead at 29-28 since the 15:13 mark of the first half. Tulsa built its lead to eight points at 41-33 with 15:15 left in the contest. UALR scored the next eight points to knot the score at 41 apiece before the Hurricane went on its 16-point scoring rampage to take a comfortable lead with just over eight minutes to play.

Tulsa held UALR at bay the remainder of the second half, building the lead to 17 points and not allowing its margin to fall under 12 points. It was the second straight double-digit victory for the Hurricane.

Down the stretch Tulsa converted 10 straight free throws from within the five-minute mark to help preserve the victory.

Woodard began the game just as he later started the second half with a three-pointer, while Tulsa then went ahead 6-2 with a Tim Peete trey. UALR knotted the score at 10-10 on a Neighbour jumper at 14:02, then the Trojans went on a 9-1 run to take a 19-11 lead with 12:09 left in the first half.

The Hurricane defense clamped down on UALR for nearly six minutes to tie the score at 19-19. The score was tied twice more in the first half of play at 22 and 24 before the Trojans went up four points at 28-24 and finished out the first 20 minutes with a 28-26 halftime lead.

Woodard led Tulsa's first-half scoring with eight points, while Neighbour led the Trojans with nine points.

Tulsa will be back in action this Saturday, Dec. 14 in Norman, Oklahoma to take on the Oklahoma Sooners in a 4 p.m. contest. Tulsa is back home next Wednesday, Dec. 18 to face Grand Canyon University with a 7:05 p.m. tipoff.