Birt's 20 Points Help Lead TU Past Stephen F. Austin In Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic

<p>Tulsa's&nbsp;Pat Birt&nbsp;scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Golden Hurricane to a 74-51 win Thursday afternoon over Stephen F. Austin in first round action at the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.&nbsp;</p>

Thursday, December 22nd 2016, 9:06 pm

By: News On 6


Tulsa's Pat Birt scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Golden Hurricane to a 74-51 win Thursday afternoon over Stephen F. Austin in first round action at the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
 
Tulsa advances to semifinal action on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. (CT) against the winner of the Southern Miss-San Diego State game. Tulsa's semifinal contest will be aired on ESPN2 and can be heard on the home of Tulsa basketball, Big Country 99.5 FM.
 
The Hurricane had 12 players score in the game, as Jaleel Wheeler and Will Magnay added 12 and 11 points, respectively, behind Birt's game-high total. The Tulsa senior converted 6-of-7 three-pointers, while as a team Tulsa converted a season-high 11-of-21 from behind the arc for 52 percent.
 
Tulsa shot 50-percent overall from the field (29-of-58), while the Hurricane bench, led by Birt, outscored SFA 42-to-15.
 
"I thought our guys played extremely well. I thought our defense was really good, but second shots hurt us in the first half. We were able to clear that up in the second half," said Tulsa Head Coach Frank Haith. "It was a good game in terms of our guys sharing the ball. I thought we did a really good job of talking and playing together, and had a lot of guys step up today."
 
Birt led the Hurricane in the first half with 14 points on 5-of-7 from the field and 4-of-4 from three-point range, as the Hurricane led by double-digits over the final five minutes and had its biggest first-half lead, 45-20, at the intermission.
 
"It was good to see Pat have the kind of game he had today. Every guy, when their number was called, went into the game and did something positive. Everybody, when they went in they did some good things, and that was great to see."
 
At the start of the second-half, SFA scored the first seven points, cutting Tulsa's lead to eight points, 40-32, as it took the Hurricane 3:13 until scoring its first basket after the intermission. Joseph Battle's driving layup and free throw ended the drought to put Tulsa back ahead by 11 points, then a Wheeler dunk at the 16:27 mark gave the Hurricane a 45-32 lead.
 
Birt connected in his first trey of the second half at the 10:53 mark for a 50-36 Tulsa lead, while his sixth and final three-pointer of the game put the Hurricane ahead 59-43 with 7:49 left on the game clock. Birt ended one three-pointer shy of tying his career-high of seven three-pointers from a year ago against Tulane.
 
Tulsa closed out today's game by outscoring the Lumberjacks 12-2 in the final 4:16, including six points from Magnay and three-pointers by Corey Haith and Travis Atson.
 
Trailing by five points early in the first half at 12-7, the Hurricane scored the next 12 points to take a 19-12 lead at the 9:47 mark. Birt's layup tied the score 12-12, and 0:34 later Taplin's layup put the Hurricane ahead 14-12.
 
Tulsa expanded its first-half lead to double digits, 29-17, on a Birt three-pointer at the 5:26 mark. The Hurricane then closed out the first 20 minutes, outscoring the Lumberjacks 11-8 in the final five minutes for a 40-25 lead.

For the first half, Tulsa connected on 60-percent of its shots, while holding Stephen F. Austin to 28-percent from the field. SFA held a 22 to 13 edge in rebounding while grabbing 11 offensive boards to just one for the Hurricane.

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