Tulsa Bounces Back With Win Against Rice Owls

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma – After a tough overtime loss against Southern Miss earlier in the week, all the Golden Hurricane needed was a solid bounce-back win on Saturday against Rice.

And that's exactly what Tulsa got in a solid 69-50 win against the Owls in its second-to-last home game of the season.

Steven Idlet and Jordan Clarkson sparked a huge second-half run in a game that was much closer than the score indicated for most of the night.

TU didn't get its first lead of the night until nearly nine minutes into the game when a 3-pointer from Clarkson put his team up 17-16.

Tulsa went on to lead by four points at the half, but couldn't seem to shake off the Owls, even at the start of the second.

The Golden Hurricane pushed their lead to double digits at one point but Rice came rallying back once again, cutting the lead down to 49-47 with just under eight minutes to play.

From there, Clarkson and Idlet went to work, combing for a 15-1 run on their own over the next four minutes.

The Hurricane defense held the Owls to only three points in the final 7:47 of the game while scoring 20 in that same period to easily push out to their biggest lead of the game at the final buzzer.

Clarkson led all scorers in the game with 23 points and Steven Idlet backed him up with 18 points in just 18 minutes.

The entire TU roster, led by guard Tim Peete with eight rebounds, outrebounded the Owls by a margin of 37-21.

Tulsa has three regular season games remaining, starting with a trip to Tulane on Feb. 25. That game tips off at 7 p.m.