TU To Host East Carolina In Season Finale

TULSA (13-14, 7-8 AAC) vs. East Carolina 13-15, 5-10 AAC)

Sunday • February 26, 2017 • 3:01 p.m. (CT) • ESPNU

Donald W. Reynolds Center (8,355) • Tulsa, Okla.

THE GAME  . . .

•    The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (13-14, 7-8 AAC) claimed an 82-68 win over USF Thursday night, while East Carolina (13-15, 5-10 AAC) last played on Tuesday in New Orleans, grabbing a 76-73 win against Tulane.

•    Tulsa has won 8 of the 9 series meetings in Tulsa, including 7 victories at the Reynolds Center.

•    East Carolina Assistant coach Michael Perry will serve as the Pirates’ Acting Head Coach for the 10th time Sunday, while ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo continues to recover from hip replacement surgery on Jan. 16 . . . Perry coached the Pirates in the earlier game against Tulsa . . . Perry has a 4-5 record as head coach during Lebo’s absence.

THE SERIES . . .

•    This is the 19th meeting between Tulsa and East Carolina.

•    Tulsa leads the series 15-3, as East Carolina snapped a six-game losing streak in the series with an earlier 69-66 win in Greenville.

•    Tulsa has an 8-1 record in Tulsa, 5-2 on the road and a 2-0 mark at a neutral site . . . one of Tulsa’s wins in Tulsa was played at the BOK Center in the Conference USA Tournament.

•    Tulsa has an overall win margin of 12.5 points in the series, including a 14.8 win margin in Tulsa.

•    Tulsa has won 7 of its games against East Carolina in Tulsa at the Reynolds Center, and all of those wins have been by double-figures.

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 33-18 record in its third season of American play, which in the last three years is the third best league mark behind SMU (41-9) and Cincinnati (39-11) . . . Temple is 32-30 and UConn 30-21 over the last three seasons.

•   Tulsa had league records of 14-4 in 2014-15 and 12-6 in 2015-16.

•   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).

FRIENDLY CONFINES OF THE REYNOLDS CENTER . . .

•   Since joining the American Athletic Conference for the 2014-15 season, Frank Haith’s Hurricane teams have compiled an overall 20-6 home record against league opponents in its three seasons.

•   Tulsa posted a 7-2 mark in the 2014-15 campaign, an 8-1 record last year and is 5-3 this year.

•   Three of the home losses have come against nationally-ranked teams, including #23 SMU in 2014-15, #18 SMU in 2015-16 and #14 Cincinnati this season . . . the other losses were to an unranked Cincinnati in 2014-15, an unranked, but receiving votes SMU team this season, and Houston this year.

•   Tulsa won 12 straight AAC home games before 2-point loss vs. #14 Cincinnati on Feb. 1, 2017.

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 to 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 66.4 percent of Tulsa’s total points, scoring 1,207 of Tulsa’s 1,818 points thru 27 games.

•    Tulsa has out-rebounded 14 opponents this season, winning 9 of those games . . . among those 14 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 25 opponents to a 68.2 scoring average.

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

LOOKING AT NUMBERS . . .

•    Tulsa had five players score in double-digits against USF, which is 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 is four assists shy from reaching 100 assists on the season.

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

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

•    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 for FG% defense, allowing opponents to just 34.8%.

•    Tulsa is shooting 73.0-percent from the free throw line at home and .722 on the road.

•    The Hurricane has a .439 field goal percentage at home, while hitting .398 on the road.

•    Sterling Taplin has a 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio overall this year, and has a 2.1 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 .766, and all games at 72.7 percent.

THE LAST MEETING . . .

•   Junior Etou’s career-high 31 points wasn’t enough for Tulsa as the Golden Hurricane fell 69-66 against the East Carolina Pirates at Minges Coliseum on Jan. 25.

•   Trailing by double-digits for nearly 10 minutes of the second half, Tulsa used a late surge and pulled to within one point, 67-66, when Jaleel Wheeler hit a traditional three-point play with 1:03 left on the game clock.

•   The Hurricane missed a three-pointer with 0:35 to play that would have given Tulsa its first lead of the second half, but instead the Pirates went down the court and hit two free throws.

 •  Tulsa had a three-point attempt to tie the game with 0:07 left that missed as East Carolina held on for the three-point victory.

•   Etou added 12 rebounds to get his fourth double-double of the season, while Corey Henderson scored 12 points, with 10 of those coming in the final 6:57.

•   ECU held a 49-39 advantage on the boards, while Tulsa shot just 31-percent from the field and 26-percent from three-point range for the game.

The LAST TIME OUT . . .

•   Pat Birt had 16 points and Martins Igbanu added 14 to lead Tulsa to an 82-68 victory over the USF Bulls Thursday night.

•   Jaleel Wheeler added 13 points, Corey Henderson 11 and Sterling Taplin 10 points for Tulsa.

•   Tulsa never trailed in the game, and the contest was tied just twice.

•   Tulsa built a 14-point lead in the first half, and held off a pesky Bulls team that cut the lead to five points at halftime.

•   In the second half, USF tied the score twice early in the period before the Hurricane was able to take the lead for good on a Henderson trey with 14:32 on the clock to make the score 52-49 and begin a 9-0 run.

•   The Bulls closed the gap to three points at 65-62 with 6:11 on the clock but that would be as close as USF would get. Tulsa out-scored USF 17-6 over the final six minutes for the 14-point win.

•   The Hurricane shot 41.4 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from three-point range, and out-rebounded the Bulls by 11 boards, 44 to 33.

•    Tulsa came out of the gates strong in the first half as the Hurricane connected on its first three-point attempts in the first two minutes and sprinted to an 11-0 lead and an eventual 15-1 advantage at the 16:09 mark.

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 24 games, Tulsa is shooting 74.9-percent from the line (396-of-529), improving its season average from .552 to .727.

•   Tulsa has hit 76.9 percent of its free throws (301-of-391) in the last 17 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 14 games, including 8 of those games over 80-percent and twice 90+ percent.

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 12.4 points and 7.0 rebounds to rank first on the team in both categories.

•   He has five 20+ scoring games this season.

•   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 17 games, Etou has connected on 86.7-percent of his free throws (72-of-83), raising his free throw percentage from 61.5 percent to a current a 78.0 percent.

•   He has scored in double-figures in 15 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 six games ago, after starting four games earlier this season.

•   In his last eight starts, Igbanu averages 8.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 0.8 blocks per game.

•   Igbanu also has connected on .600 percent of his field goals (21-of-35) 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 4 double-digit scoring games in the 8 starts, including a season-high 15 points at UCF.