WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: TU falls 63-58 To St. Louis

In a game that had 11 lead changes, the Saint Louis Billikens (3-3) held on for a 63-58 road victory over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (3-4) Wednesday afternoon in front of 997 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

A three-point attempt by Kelsee Grovey, that would have put the Hurricane ahead by one point with 0:05 remaining on the game clock, was blocked and a subsequent deadball technical foul was called against Tulsa's Teanna Reid. Ahead 60-58, Saint Louis' Jenny Vliet connected on the two technical foul shots for a 62-58 lead with no time ticking off the clock.

“We were uncharacteristic offensively. We never got in a rhythm and didn't make three point shots,” said Tulsa Head Coach Matilda Mossman. “We didn't attack the basket, which is why we only got eight attempts at the free throw line. They took away a lot of our gaps and we couldn't hit outside shots.”

The game was tied 12 times, including five times in the second half, as the biggest second-half lead was the final five-point decision by the Billikens. Tulsa's last lead in the game came at the 8:29 mark, 46-45, on an Erika Wakefield jumper, but the Hurricane tied the score two more times at 49 and 51.

Saint Louis took the lead for good at 53-51 on a Sadie Stipanovich jumper with 3:25 left in the game.

Stipanovich led the visitor's with 20 points and seven rebounds, while Vliet added 16 points. Tulsa was led by Ashley Clark's 13 points and Mariah Turner's 11. The Hurricane received 26 bench points with Teanna Reid's nine points and Kelsee Grovey's eight points and seven rebounds leading the way.

The Billikens shot nine more free throw than the Hurricane and made 12-of-17 for the game, while Tulsa shot 50-percent from the charity stripe, converting four of just eight attempts. Tulsa shot two percentage points better from the field than Saint Louis (52.1 to 50.0) and outrebounded the visitors, 28-25.

“They shot free throws because of our inability to guard the ball. We just struggled guarding the ball. We needed to depend on help defense. Hats off to them. They did a great job attacking us and got themselves to the free throw line and that is where the game was won,” said Mossman.

Saint Louis scored 20 points off of Tulsa's 21 turnovers, while the Hurricane managed just 11 points on 18 Billiken turnovers.

The lead switched sides seven times in the first half as the score was also tied at intermission 29-29. Grovey's three-pointer at 0:00 knotted the score for the Hurricane going into halftime.

The largest lead for Tulsa was four points when Turner's layup put the Hurricane ahead 4-0 at the 16:45 mark. Saint Louis took its' biggest first-half lead of six points at 28-22 on a layup by the Billikens' Vliet with 3:08 remaining in the first 20 minutes.

Tulsa then out-scored the Billikens 7-1 over the final 2:20 to tie the score at halftime.

Tulsa travels this weekend to face Valparaiso on Saturday, Dec. 6 for a 12:30 p.m. game, before returning to the Reynolds Center for a four-game home-stand beginning on Sunday, Dec. 14 against the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks with a 2:00 p.m. tip-off time.