TU Women Take Down Lamar

Kadan Brady scored a career-high 23 points as the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (1-1) captured a 73-69 win over the Lamar Cardinals (0-2) Monday night in front of 896 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Brady converted a career-best 6-of-13 three-pointers while leading the Hurricane. Fellow senior Mariah Turner added 14 points, while sophomore Ashley Hughes added nine points and a team-high six rebounds. Lamar's Baileigh O'Dell had a game-high 25 points, while Dominique Edwards tallied 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Cardinals.

Tulsa's bench led by Hughes career-high out-scored the Lamar bench 22-7, while the Hurricane also scored 20 points off of 20 Cardinal turnovers.

Mossman praised her bench for the great effort tonight. “I think that it is important to have a player like Ashley Hughes that comes off the bench and gives you a spark, hits a couple three's and does a great job defensively on Shauna Long. Ashley did a great job on her and didn't give her any looks. And then, Jordyn Holmes comes in the second half and got a key steal, hit a shot and got some layups. I'm really pleased we have kids coming in off the bench and giving us stuff, whether it is rebounds or points.”

After leading by four points at halftime, the Cardinals built a nine-point lead twice within the first five minutes of the second half before the Hurricane chopped at the lead. Tulsa took its first lead of the second half at the 10:05 mark when Brady's three-pointer made the score 54-52 and 68 seconds later Ashley Hughes trey put the Hurricane ahead by five points at 57-52.

The Hurricane stretched its lead to eight points, 67-59, on three Brady free throws with 4:48 left on the game clock. But the Cardinals did not go away, scoring the next eight points to cut the lead to two points. Edwards' layup tied the score for Lamar at 69 at the 1:34 mark.

Freshman Erika Wakefield's 15-foot jumper with 1:09 on the clock gave the Hurricane a 71-69 lead, while Kelsee Grovey knocked down two free throws with 14 seconds on the clock to extend the Tulsa lead to the final score of 73-69.

After shooting just 36-percent in the first half the Tulsa women shot 56-percent in the second half, making 15-of-27 field goals, including 5-of-10 three-pointers. Brady had three treys in each half for the Hurricane.

Lamar began the game scoring the first four points, before Tulsa tied it at 4-4 with two layups by Mariah Turner. The next six minutes the two teams would remain within three points before a Edwards three-pointer put the Cardinals ahead by six points at 20-14 at the 10:48 mark.

The Hurricane went on a 80 run to take the leas at 22-20 at the 8:35 mark on two free throws by Turner and three-pointers by Brady and Hughes. In the final eight minutes of the first half, the score changed five more times before O'Dell's three-pointer by Lamar ahead at halftime 36-32.

The game was tied four times and the lead changed hands 10 times in the first 20 minutes. Lamar shot 47-percent from the field and 36-percent from behind the arc, Tulsa shot just 36-percent and just 29-percent from three-point range.

Brady led all scorers in the first half with 11 points, while Turner added 10 points for the Hurricane. O'Dell led the Cardinals with 10 first-half points.

Tulsa travels cross-town Friday to face city rival Oral Roberts at 7:00 p.m. in the annual PSO Mayor's Cup game.