Tulsa Women Storm Back To Down Western Michigan

The Tulsa women's basketball team earned a 60-59 comeback win over Western Michigan on Friday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. TU moved to 2-1 on the season, while WMU fell to 2-3 overall.

"We just couldn't get anything going offensively in the first half," coach Matilda Mossman said. "The plan from the beginning was to attack the basket and I thought we settled for jump shots, even when we got the ball inside to our posts, they were throwing it out too much. We had an advantage inside, but we just weren't using it. We just didn't have enough fight at times, but even though we got down we fought back in the end to earn the win."

Tulsa trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half, but battled back to trail by 10 (32-22) at the break. In the second half, TU pulled to within six twice, but the Broncos took another 15-point advantage (52-37) with 10:40 on the clock. The Golden Hurricane chipped away at the deficit and took a 56-55 lead with just under two minutes left to play. TU had a four-point lead with five seconds on the clock, but WMU's Michelle O'Brien hit a three-pointer at the buzzer for the final score.

Sophomores Kelsee Grovey and Ashley Clark each netted a team-best 13 points, while freshman Stevi Parker pulled down a team-high nine rebounds and recorded five steals. Mariah Turner added eight points and five rebounds, while Parker had seven points.

The Golden Hurricane shot just 33-percent from the field and 33-percent from behind the arc, and went 14-of-26 from the charity stripe for 53-percent.

Tulsa had a 9-2 lead in steals, while the Broncos had a 42-30 advantage in rebounds and registered the only two blocks in the contest.

WMU was led by O'Brien with 11 points and 13 rebounds, while Marquisha Harris also tallied 11 points and Jazmine Windham added 10.

Tulsa will return to action against cross-town rival Oral Roberts on Tuesday, Nov. 26th. Game time is set for 7:00 pm at the Reynolds Center on the TU campus.