TU Wraps Regular Season Sunday At Tulane

TULSA (14-15, 8-9 AAC) vs. TULANE (5-24, 2-15 AAC)

Sunday • March 2, 2017 • 3:05 p.m. (CT) • ESPNU

Devlin Fieldhouse (3,600) • New Orleans, La.

THE GAME  . . .

•   The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (14-15, 8-9 AAC) is coming off a loss at #14-ranked SMU on Thursday, while Tulane lost at Memphis Thursday night by a score of 92-70.

•   Tulsa has won four of the last five games in New Orleans, including an 81-67 win a year ago.

THE SERIES . . .

•   This is the 23rd meeting between Tulsa and Tulane.

•   Tulsa leads the series 17-5 and has won the last eight meetings and 13 of the last 14 games . . . the last Tulane win came on January 19, 2013, in New Orleans.

•   The Hurricane won the earlier meeting this season, 89-82, in Tulsa on January 18.

•   Tulsa has posted an 11-1 record at home, 5-3 in New Orleans and 1-1 on a neutral court.

•   Tulsa has a 10.4 margin in its 17 wins, while Tulane’s win margin is 4.4 points in the series.

TULSA IN THE AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE . . .

•   Tulsa is in its third season as a member of the American Athletic Conference, after finishing its first year in second-place and placing in a tie for third-place a year ago.

•   Tulsa has an overall 34-19 record in its third season of American play, which in the last three years is the third best league mark behind SMU (43-9) and Cincinnati (40-12) . . . Temple is 33-30 and UConn 30-23 over the last three seasons.

•   Tulsa had league records of 14-4 in 2014-15 and 12-6 in 2015-16 . . . Tulsa is 8-9 in The American this season.

•   In the preseason coaches poll, Tulsa was picked to finish 9th in the league . . . this year, Tulsa has defeated teams picked above them –– UConn (2nd), Memphis (5th), Temple (6th) and UCF(8th).

IGBANU NAMED AAC ROOKIE OF THE WEEK . . .

•   True freshman Martins Igbanu was named The American Rookie of the Week for the week of Feb. 20-26.

•   Averaged 12.0 points and 7.5 rebounds in 25.0 minutes of play in wins over USF and East Carolina, while shooting .538 from the field and 50-percent from three-point range in the two games.

•   In an 82-68 victory over USF, Igbanu totaled 14 points and 7 rebounds, while shooting 66.7 percent from the field.

•   On Sunday, he tallied 10 points and 8 rebounds, while also adding 2 steals in a 74-66 win over East Carolina.

QUICK SHOTS . . .

•   Tulsa is playing its 106th season of basketball.

•   Tulsa features only three players on its roster that appeared in a game at TU prior to this season – Pat Birt, TK Edogi and Sterling Taplin.

•   Tulsa graduated 9 seniors after last year’s 20-12 season and NCAA tournament appearance, including losing 81-percent of its scoring and 78-percent of its rebounding.

•   Tulsa has 10 newcomers on its roster, including two juniors, three sophomores and five freshmen.

•   Tulsa has used 9 different starting lineups through 25 games this year.

•   Ten players have made their Tulsa debuts this season . . . they have accounted for 66.5 percent of Tulsa’s total points, scoring 1,313 of Tulsa’s 1,962 points thru 29 games.

•   Tulsa has out-rebounded 15 opponents this season, winning 9 of those games . . . among those 15 games, Tulsa has had 8 double-digit rebounding margins, including a high of 21 more than ORU.

•   After allowing its first two opponents this season to average 82.0 points, both losses, Tulsa has held its next 27 opponents to a 66.6 scoring average.

•   Tulsa has had 7 different players lead the Hurricane in scoring in at least one game this year.

LOOKING AT NUMBERS . . .

•   After shooting just .367 from the field, .367 from 3-point range and scoring just 54.8 points per game in a six-game losing streak, Tulsa rebounded in its next two wins to snap the streak by shooting .444 (48-108) from the field and .440 (22-50) from three-point range, while scoring 78.0 points per game in the two victories.

•   Tulsa had five players score in double-digits against USF, which was the third time this year that five players reached double-figures in scoring . . . the previous times came in the fifth game of the year at Oral Roberts and the ninth game against Texas State.

•   Sterling Taplin surpassed 100 assists on the season when he had a career-high 9 assists against East Carolina.

•   Tulsa shot a season-high .579 percent from 3-point range on 11-of-17 at #18 Cincinnati.

•   Tulsa held the then 14th-ranked Cincinnati to 21.5 points below its season scoring average in the first meeting this year,

•   The Hurricane also shot 40.5 percent from the field against Cincinnati, the nation’s second-ranked field goal defensive team in the first meeting.

•   Tulsa’s 77 points in its win over UCF in the first meeting this year was the most points allowed this season up to that point by UCF, bettering the previous high of 74.

•   Tulsa shot 42.6% against a UCF team that came into the contest leading the nation in FG% defense, allowing opponents to just 34.8%.

•   Tulsa is shot 73.7-percent from the free throw line at home and .725 on the road.

•   The Hurricane had a .442 field goal percentage at home, while hitting .395 on the road.

•   Sterling Taplin has a 1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio overall this year, and has a 2.4 ratio in home games.

•   Tulsa leads the American Athletic Conference in both league games and all games. In league play, Tulsa has a free throw percentage of .769, and all games at 73.1 percent.

CHARITY STRIPE HAS BEEN KIND TO TULSA . . .

•   After the first 3 games, Tulsa was shooting just 55.2-percent from the free throw line (37-of-67).

•   In Tulsa’s last 26 games, Tulsa is shooting 75.2-percent from the line (434-of-577), improving its season average from .552 to .731.

•   Tulsa has hit 77.2 percent of its free throws (339-of-439) in the last 19 games.

•   After the poor free throw shooting in the first three games, Tulsa went the next three games hitting 75.9 percent from the line (44-of-58), including 13-of-16 at ORU for a percentage of .813 in that third game.

•   Tulsa connected on a season-best .909 from the line (20-of-22) at Houston.

•   Tulsa has hit over 75-percent from the charity stripe in 16 games, including 9 of those games over 80-percent and twice 90+ percent.

TULSA BENCH OUT-SCORING OPPOSITION . . .

•   Tulsa’s bench has averaged 23.3 points (675) in 29 games this season, while the opponents average 12.8 points (372) off the bench.

•   The Hurricane bench outscores the visiting team bench by 10.5 points per game.

•   The bench is scoring 34.4-percent of Tulsa’s points, while the opposition has 18.3 percent scoring from the bench.

•   Tulsa’s bench has outscored all but three of its opponents this year – Wichita State (52-20), Oklahoma State (26-14) and San Diego State (15-12).

•   In the first game vs. UCF, Tulsa’s bench tied its season-high with 42 of its 77 points.

•   Tulsa’s bench has scored over 30 points 8 times this year –– 33 vs. Jacksonville State, 35 vs. New Orleans, 35 at ORU, 30 at Little Rock, 34 vs. Texas State, 42 vs. Stephen F. Austin, 37 at USF and 42 vs. UCF.

•   Tulsa’s largest margin in bench scoring is 34 points, which has occurred twice . . . Tulsa outscored the ORU bench 35-1 and the Texas State bench 34-0.

JUNIOR LEADING HURRICANE . . .

•   Junior Etou, a junior who sat out last year after transferring from Rutgers, has been a key component to the Tulsa team.

•   Etou averages 12.8 points and 6.9 rebounds to rank first on the team in both categories.

•   He has six 20+ scoring games this season.

•   He scored 23 points in Tulsa’s home finale vs. East Carolina, including 20 in the second half.

•   Etou had 22 points, and connected on a career-best 6-of-9 treys, and also added a team-high 8 rebounds at Cincinnati.

•   Etou scored a new career-high with 31 points and added 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season at East Carolina on Jan. 25.

•   His previous career-high was 23 points against Memphis, while he also turned in a career-best 13 rebounds in that game.

•   His earlier career-high was 22 points, while knocking down 13-of-14 free throws, against Illinois State at the Diamond Head Classic.

•   In the last 19 games, Etou has connected on 85.4-percent of his free throws (82-of-96), raising his free throw percentage from 61.5 percent to a current a 77.9 percent.

•   He has scored in double-figures in 17 games and has 4 double-doubles.

•   Against Illinois State in the first meeting, Etou had 15 points, including a layup at 2:29 that gave Tulsa its first second-half lead, and added 3 rebounds.

•   Against Oklahoma State, Etou’s layup with 0:40 on the clock tied the game at 67-67.

•   Etou began the year with a 20-point, 10-rebound performance against Jacksonville State.

FRESHMAN IGBANU COMING ON . . .

•   True freshman Martins Igbanu was inserted into the starting lineup 10 games ago, after starting four games earlier this season.

•   In his last 10 starts, Igbanu averages 8.9 points (89), 4.8 rebounds (48) and 0.6 blocks (6) per game.

•   Igbanu also has connected on .587 percent of his field goals (27-of-46) over that stretch . . . he hit 75-percent of his 3-pointers vs. UCF (3-of-4) after coming into the game having attempted just one three-pointer on the year and is now 3-of-5 on the year.

•   He has had 6 double-digit scoring games in the 10 starts, including a season-high 15 points at UCF . . . he has scored in double-digits in 5 of the last 6 games.