Tulsa Women Take Down Memphis With Comeback Win

Teanna Reid scored 18 points, one shy of tying her career-best, and Kelsee Grovey added 15 to lead Tulsa to a 65-59 win over Memphis on Sunday afternoon at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse in Memphis, Tenn.  TU moved to 6-10 on the season and 3-2 in the American Athletic Conference, while the Tigers fell to 9-7 overall and 3-2 in the league.

“I thought we played so well defensively and we played together,” Head Coach Matilda Mossman said.  “We got stops when we needed to, and we showed a lot of fight and a lot of passion.  I am also so proud of the fact that we played so well together.”

“We talked about our shooting percentage, especially in the conference, and we talked with the team about getting open shots and shots in rhythm.  Today, Teanna, Kelsee and Erika got shots in rhythm and that is what we needed from them.”

Erika Wakefield added eight points, while Ashley Clark totaled seven and Liesl Spoerl tallied six.  Tyjae’ Scales recorded a team-best 10 rebounds, eight of which were on the defensive end, and Grovey had six.  Reid had five assists.

The third frame started the same as the first with the Tigers scoring the first seven points, but Grovey hit a three to make the score 43-40 with 6:46 on the clock.  Grovey was then called for three quick fouls that spanned 55-seconds off the clock and was forced to go to the bench to join Clark who picked up her fourth foul just a couple minutes earlier.

After getting down by six twice in the third quarter, including a 43-37 deficit at 7:34 and a 49-43 score with 2:16 to play, Tulsa battled to pull within two, 50-48, with just one quarter to play.  Reid scored eight-straight points, including two treys, to close out the final 3:07 of the period.

Two free throws by Williams and the score was tied at 50-all with just 22 seconds off the clock in the final frame.  The score was tied again at 52-52 (8:55) and 57-57 (4:41), before Wakefield scored a layup to give TU a two-point lead.  TU outscored Memphis, 6-2, in the final 3:39 of the contest and the Golden Hurricane held on for the 65-59 win.

Tulsa shot 40-percent from the field, including 44-percent from three-point range, and hit 13-of-16 free throw attempts for 81-percent, while Memphis shot 35-percent from the field, including just 18-percent from behind the arc, and were 10-of-17 from the charity stripe for 58-percent.

Memphis had a 41-35 lead in rebounds, a 7-5 lead in steals and a 2-0 lead in blocks, while Tulsa had a 13-8 advantage in assists. 

The Hurricane scored 24 points in the paint and 25 points off the bench compared to the Tigers’ 32 points in the paint and eight points off the bench.  Memphis did have a 19-4 advantage in second chance points.

The Tigers were led by Ariel Hearn with 18 points, Brianna Wright with 14 points and Mooriah Rowser with 10 points.  Asianna Fuqua-Bey had 13 rebounds and Wright added 11.

Memphis jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but Tulsa battled back to trail 14-10 with 4:27 on the clock.  Six of those points were scored by Spoerl, but with two early fouls she went to the bench at that time.  The Tigers outscored the Hurricane, 10-4, to close out the first frame with a 24-14 advantage.

Tulsa battled back in the second quarter to tie the game at 32-all with 3:09 on the clock after being down by as many as 10 points.  A pair of free throws by Clark gave TU their first lead of the contest with two minutes to play at 34-32, and a three-pointer at the buzzer by Reid gave the Hurricane a 37-36 advantage at the break.  Tulsa outscored Memphis, 23-12, in the second frame.

Tulsa shot 46-percent from the field, including 40-percent from three-point range, and were 3-for-3 at the charity stripe, while Memphis shot 45-percent from the field, but were just 22-percent from behind the arc, and hit 4-of-5 free throw attempts in the first half.

Tulsa will return to action on Wednesday, January 13 against Cincinnati.  Game time is set for 7:00 pm at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.