Golden Hurricane Can't Keep Up With Hot-Shooting Creighton

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma – The TU men's basketball team set a Reynolds Center record on Monday night, but it wasn't a good one.

In an 83-64 loss to No. 21 Creighton, the Golden Hurricane gave up 35 points to sophomore Doug McDermott.

That tied the record for the most points allowed by an individual in the 13-year history of the Reynolds Center. Appalachian State's Omar Carter also scored 35 on Nov. 12, 2010.

The tough part was, McDermott wasn't the only Creighton player lighting it up from the floor in the TU loss.

The Bluejays shot 59 percent as a team from the floor and led by as many as 21 in the contest.

Tulsa was actually putting up a quality fight for much of the first half, and trailed by only eight at halftime.

But Creighton outscored TU 13-3 to start the second half and the Golden Hurricane could never cut the lead back to single digits.

TU coach Doug Wojcik said he thought the remarkable shooting from Creighton took TU out of the game mentally.

"That was one impressive performance by Doug McDermott," he said. "I thought the guy single-handedly broke the spirit of our team. In particular, our three seniors and sophomore post players. He was terrific."

Tulsa actually led 20-19 at one point in the first thanks to a 15-4 run. But the Bluejays responded with a 7-0 run of their own to regain the lead for good at that point.

"We wanted to guard the three-point line because they just shoot it so well," Wojcik said. "They got rolling, and there wasn't much we could do about it. Some nights you just get your butt kicked, and we got our butt kicked."

The TU men are finished until after Christmas, when they will host the Mercer Bears on Dec. 28. Tipoff for that game is set for 8:30 p.m.