Tulsa Women Take Down Charlotte

All five Tulsa starters scored in double-figures as the Golden Hurricane downed the Charlotte 49ers in Tulsa's final regular season game Wednesday night, 68-57, in front of 427 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Sophomores Ashley Clark and Kelsee Grovey shared the scoring honors for the Hurricane with 15 points apiece, while Mariah Turner and Loren McDaniel added 12 and Kadan Brady chipped in with 10 points. Grovey and Brady played all 40 minutes for the Hurricane, while Brady tallied four assists and four steals. Clark led the Hurricane with six assists, while Turner and McDaniel shared team honors with seven rebounds. Charlotte's Gabby Tyler had 14 points, Kira Gordon totaled 12 and Lefty Webster had 11 points for the 49ers.

Tulsa ended the regular season with a 6-10 Conference USA mark and goes into C-USA Championship play next week with a 12-15 overall record. Charlotte dropped to 14-14 overall and 8-7 in league action with a Friday make-up game at UAB.

Ahead by just two points at halftime, Tulsa out-scored the 49ers 40-31 in the second half, while shooting a blistering 54-percent from the field and 44-percent from three-point range in the final 20 minutes. For the game, Tulsa shot 45-percent from the floor and 43-percent from beyond the three-point line.

Tulsa scored the first four points of the second half for a six-point lead, but the 49ers chopped the Hurricane advantage to one point twice at the 14:07 mark, 37-36, and 39-38 with 13:09 to play in the contest. Tulsa then went on a 6-0 run to take a 45-38 lead with 12:07 on the clock.

The Hurricane took its first double-digit lead of 10 points with 9:20 left on the clock at 54-44 on a Brady three-pointer. The Tulsa lead dipped to six points twice before McDaniel's jumper at the 6:06 mark put the Hurricane ahead by double digits for good at 62-52. Tulsa reached a 12-point lead three times before ending with the 11-point victory.

In the second half, Tulsa outscored Charlotte 22-12 in the paint, but the 49ers had a 14-7 advantage in points off turnovers.

Tulsa jumped out to a 4-0 lead and built its largest first-half lead at 7-2 with 16:40 on the clock. Charlotte went on a 13-2 run over the next 3:20 to take a 15-9 lead at the 13:20 mark. The Hurricane cut the Charlotte lead to two points at 15-13, but the 49ers scored the next four points for a 19-13 lead with 10:56 remaining in the first half.

The Hurricane scored the next six points to knot the score a 19-19 with 9:15 remaining in the first 20 minutes. Tulsa took its first lead at 24-23 since an early 7-4 advantage when Brady connected on a three-pointer at the 4:43 mark. The 49ers re-took the lead at 25-24, before Tulsa closed out the first half by scoring four points for a 28-26 halftime lead.

McDaniel led the first-half scoring for Tulsa with eight points, while Turner added six points. Tyler led the 49ers with eight points in the first half.

Tulsa enters Conference USA Tournament action next week, March 11-15. The Hurricane will open tournament play on Tuesday. Tournament seeding will be announced Friday evening, following the UAB-Charlotte game from earlier in the afternoon.