Tulsa Basketball Wins Exhibition

Tulsa built a 26-point halftime lead and went on for a 118-55 victory over Haskell Indian Nations Thursday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center in the only exhibition game this year for the Golden Hurricane.

Tulsa improved its career exhibition record to 59-2. The victory also marked the 16th 100-point game in exhibition history and the second straight year that the Hurricane hit the century mark in a tune-up game.

Tulsa went over the century mark when freshman Stevie Repichowski knocked down a three-pointer at the 5:13 mark to make the score 102-43.

Senior Pat Swilling Jr. scored a game-high 23 points in just 16 minutes, while Repichowski added 19 points in 11 minutes and sophomore Rashad Smith poured in 18 points in 18 minutes for the Hurricane. Junior newcomer Marquel Curtis also added 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Freshman Lew Evans had a team-high 11 of Tulsa's 60 rebounds. Swilling and Repichowski each converted 5-of-9 three-pointers for the game.

Haskell had three players in double-digits with Sapulpa's Stand Lovato and TsaLiDi Sequoyah had 11 points apiece.

As might be expected for a first game, Tulsa began the night sluggish scoring just 18 points in the first 10 minutes of the game. The Hurricane ended the final 30 minutes by pouring in 100 points. After leading by 26 points at halftime, the Hurricane scored 58 points in the second half.

Tulsa scored 49 points off of 28 Haskell turnovers, while committing just 12 turnovers of its own. The Hurricane had 26 second-chance points and 23 fast-break points, while the Tulsa bench outscored the Indians' reserves 77-16.

Tulsa came out smoking in the second half by hitting its first five baskets to take a 60-29. Tulsa took its biggest lead of the game of 68 points with two minutes remaining on an Evans layup, making the score 116-48. In the final 20 minutes, Tulsa shot 63-percent from the field and connected on 53-percent from three-point range.

Haskell scored the game's first points on a three-pointer by Stand Lovato 1:07 into the game, but Tulsa rattled off the next eight points.

After Swilling's three-pointer gave Tulsa a 7-3 lead at the 17:32 mark, the next six minutes saw the Hurricane go without a field goal, but still was able to connect on 6-of-8 free throws in that time span for a 13-10 lead.

Smith's layup at the 11:05 mark broke the dry spell from the field for the Hurricane. From that point, Tulsa went on a 14-0 run over the next two-and-a-half minutes for a 27-10 lead. Tulsa closed out the first half by outscoring Haskell, 21-12, for a halftime lead of 48-22.

The Hurricane shot just 34-percent from the field in the first 20 minutes and 26-percent from three-point range. Swilling led all scorers in the first half with 18 points on 7-of-11 from the field and 4-of-7 from three-point range. Smith added 10 points and seven rebounds.

Manning cleared the Tulsa bench in the first half as all 14 suited players saw action while building its 26-point first-half advantage.