TU Men Roll Over Texas Southern

Tulsa went on a 28-6 run over a nine-minute span ending the first half and opening the second half en route to a 98-71 victory over the Texas Southern Tigers on Wednesday night in front of 3,806 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. Tulsa improved to 2-6 on the season, while Texas Southern fell to 3-6 overall.

James Woodard scored a season-high 25 points, while Rashad Smith and Pat Swilling each added 14 points. Shaquille Harrison had 11 points and Rashad Ray added 10 points off the bench for the Hurricane. Smith added a game-high 11 rebounds as Tulsa out-rebounded TSU 39-31. Aaric Ray led Texas Southern with a game-high 30 points in 34 minutes.

The Hurricane knocked down a season-high 11 of 21 three-pointers to shoot a season-best 52.4 percent from three-point range and also shot season-best 53.7 percent from the field.

"I thought we shot the ball well. When you shoot the ball well it makes up for a multitude of sins. That's what I'm looking at on the stat sheet. We got contributions from a lot of guys who did a lot of good things, but we can't be content," said Tulsa Head Coach Danny Manning. "This was a good game. I'm glad we won the game and had a lot of guys that played well. We have to come back tomorrow and get better. It's a nice win."

Tulsa opened the second half scoring the first 11 points on treys from Lew Evans, Woodard and Swilling and a layup from Harrison to build a 55-32 lead before the Tigers tallied their first second-half points. TSU got as close as 17 points, 59-42, on a Ray Penn three-pointer at the 15:24 mark. Tulsa scored the next 10 points for a 27-point lead at 69-42 with 13:21 to play.

Tulsa kept the lead between 21 and 30 points over the remaining 13 minutes and grabbed its biggest lead at 98-68 when Barrett Hunter knocked down a jumper with 0:20 left on the game clock for a 30-point lead. TSU's Penn hit a three-pointer at the 0:17 mark to make the final score 98-71 for Tulsa's second win of the season.

Texas Southern jumped out to an 11-2 lead in the first four minutes of the contest as the only Hurricane score came on a Shaquille Harrison layup at the 18:32 mark to pull with two points at 4-2. Tulsa's next score came on a Smith layup at 15:43 that snapped a scoreless stretch of 2:49.

The Tigers kept Tulsa at a distance and built its lead back to eight points at 17-9 with 12:38 remaining in the first half. Tulsa's Woodard knocked down a jumper in the paint and then back-to-back three-pointers to knot the score at 17-17 at the 10:42 mark.

Ray's free throw gave Tulsa its' first lead at 18-17 twenty seconds later, then Smith hit four straight free throws for a 22-17 lead. The Tigers cut Tulsa's lead to one point twice more in the first half at 22-21 at the 8:57 mark and 27-26 with 6:17 remaining before intermission.

The Hurricane outscored TSU 17 to six over the final 5:34 to close out the first 20 minutes with a 44-32 lead.

Woodard had 12 first-half points, while Smith added 10 points. TSU's Ray had 15 points in 15 minutes, but was saddled with three first-half fouls.

Tulsa will be back in action this Saturday, Dec. 7 as a part of a double-header with the Tulsa women as both teams play host to UALR.