Tulsa Falls 75-62 To No. 17 Oklahoma

The Tulsa women (2-7) gave a valiant comeback effort but fell to the 17th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners (8-1) by a score of 75-62 in front of 1,770 fans Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Teanna Reid had 15 points to lead the Golden Hurricane, while seniors Ashley Clark and Kelsee Grovey added 12 and 11 points, respectively. OU’s 6’3” Kaylon Williams had a double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Sooners.

The Hurricane outscored Oklahoma 24 to 16 in the final 10 minutes, but it was cold-shooting early in the contest that doomed the Hurricane bid for an upset. Tulsa shot just 32-percent from both the field and three-point range for the game, but the Hurricane did knock down 11 treys out of 34 attempts.

"We just got off to such a slow start in the first half.  We were back on our heels a little bit and missed some defensive assignments.  Even though they shot 42-percent, they got a lot of layups and offensive rebounds, and then we couldn't score on our end,” said Tulsa Head Coach Matilda Mossman. 

Tulsa forced Oklahoma into 16 turnovers, but the taller Sooners out-rebounded the Hurricane 54-38 and had a 32-18 advantage on points in the paint.

Tulsa came out in the second half with a renewed energy and battled the Sooners toe-to-toe throughout the final 20 minutes, as the Hurricane outscored Oklahoma 38-35 in the second half. OU outscored Tulsa by five points in the third quarter, but the Hurricane got the better of the Sooners in the fourth period by eight points.

OU took its biggest lead of 23 points on a Williams layup to start the second half and had a 22-point lead with 6:08 to play when Peyton Little hit two free throws to make the score 68-46. The Hurricane sliced that lead to the final 13-point margin by outscoring the Sooners 16-7 over the last 5:52 of the game. Grovey knocked down two treys during that stretch while Teanna Reid had one of her game-high four three-pointers.

“Once we put the first half behind us, we came back out in the second half and outscored them for 20 minutes and outscored them in the fourth quarter.  We saw some good things from our kids. The fact that we battled back from being down 16 at half, and then getting down 23, I was proud of our effort,” said Mossman.

An Ashley Clark three-pointer at the 7:38 mark of the first quarter gave Tulsa a 5-4 lead, but it was the only lead the Hurricane would have throughout the entire contest. The Sooners went on an 18-4 run to take a 22-9 lead with 3:04 left on the first quarter clock and ended the quarter with a 25-14 lead.

Oklahoma maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second quarter, leading by as many as 17 points, 38-21, with 2:15 left before the intermission. Ashley Hughes’ three-pointer cut the OU lead to 14 points, 38-24, at the 1:13 mark, but the Sooners got a Vionise Pierre-Louis put-back with 0:00 on the clock to take a 40-24 lead into halftime.

Tulsa goes on the road for two straight games, facing Little Rock this Sunday, Dec. 13 with a 2:00 p.m. tip-off, then traveling to face Northern Iowa a week later for a Sunday, Dec. 20th game that tips off at 1:00 p.m.

The Hurricane returns to the Reynolds Center on Wednesday, Dec. 30 to begin American Athletic Conference play against the East Carolina Pirates.