Tulsa Falls to BYU, 71-56

Saturday, November 26

Albuquerque, N.M.

1:00 pm

Tulsa

2-4

BYU

3-2

BYU

Tulsa

Tulsa Falls to BYU, 71-56

11/26/2016 2:58:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Stephanie Hall

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The Tulsa women's basketball team dropped a 71-56 decision to BYU in the UNM Thanksgiving Tournament championship game on Saturday afternoon at the WisePies Arena in Albuquerque, N.M. TU fell to 2-4 on the season, while the Cougars moved to 3-2 overall.

For their efforts in the tournament, Jessica Pongonis and Erika Wakefield were named to the UNM Thanksgiving Tournament all-tournament team.

"Only having a 15-hour turnaround affects you more when you have a young team like we do than when you have an older, veteran team like BYU does," Head Coach Matilda Mossman said. "We just couldn't get into any kind of rhythm on the offensive end and couldn't get stops on the defensive end and BYU took advantage of that. Jess has worked hard and payed her dues so I am happy she was able to be successful in back-to-back games. Erika had a tough time today getting the ball to go down, but she was able to earn assists by finding her teammates so they could score so I'm happy they both earned the all-tournament team honors."

Pongonis had a team-leading 11 points for a new career high, beating her previous best of 10 points that she had yesterday. Tatyana Perez also scored in double figures today with 10 points, while Addison Richards had eight points, and both Erika Wakefield and Ebony Parker added seven. Crystal Polk, Wakefield and Pongonis all had three rebounds in the contest, while Wakefield had five assists.

BYU had a 44-21 lead in rebounds, a 6-1 advantage in blocks and an 8-6 lead in steals, while both teams had 16 assists.

The Golden Hurricane shot 37-percent from the field, 42-percent from behind the arc and 80-percent from the free throw line, while the Cougars shot 49-percent from the field, 28-percent from three-point range and 52-percent from the charity stripe.

Tulsa got off to a slow start, shooting just 25-percent (3-of-12) in the first quarter to trail BYU 17-8 after 10 minutes of play. The Cougars hit 44-percent of their first frame shots.

After getting down by 13 (24-11) with 7:11 on the clock in the second quarter, TU inched back into the game and cut their deficit to four points (26-22) with 52-seconds remaining in the frame on a three-pointer by Parker. Haley Rydalch scored on a layup as the buzzer sounded and BYU took a 28-22 advantage into the break.

TU shot just 32-percent in the first half, including 33-percent from three-point range, and was 3-of-3 from the free throw line, compared to BYU's 42-percent from the field, 9-percent from behind the arc and 37-percent from the charity stripe (3-of-8).

BYU came out and hit 4-of-5 to start the third quarter, while Tulsa was 2-of-6 in the first four minutes. giving the Cougars a nine-point advantage (37-28) with 5:58 on the clock.

BYU inched ahead to a game-high 21 points to start the fourth quarter (56-35) and ended with the 15-point victory.

BYU was led by Kalani Purcell with 19 points, followed by Kristine Nielson with 17 and Makenzi Pulsipher with 15 points. Pulsipher also had a team-high eight rebounds, while Purcell had six assists.

Tulsa will return to action on Wednesday, November 30 against Arkansas. Game time is set for 7:00 pm at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.