The Golden Hurricane defeated Texas A&M 67-56 Friday evening at the South Padre Island Invitational. |
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Men's Basketball Downs Texas A&M, 67-56
Nov. 28, 2008
SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas - Junior point guard Ben Uzoh scored 16 points and the Tulsa defense held Texas A&M without a field goal for nearly 12 minutes of the second half in a 67-56 victory Friday night at the South Padre Island Invitational.
The Golden Hurricane (4-1) advances to play Illinois Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in the tournament championship game, which will be televised by Fox College Sports.
Tulsa led only 29-28 at the half, then opened the second half on a 25-4 run. The Aggies (4-1) didn't record a field goal in the second half until there was 8:13 remaining, and by that time the score was 54-36 in favor of the Golden Hurricane.
Junior forward Jerome Jordan scored 13 points and seven rebounds for Tulsa, and senior guard Ray Reese added 13 points. Uzoh's 16 point put him over 1,000 points for his career, a milestone he reached with a three-pointer with 15:42 left in the game.
For the contest, TU shot 48 percent on 22-of-46 shooting, including 54 percent in the second half, and shot 70 percent (19-of-27) from the free throw line. Defensively, the Hurricane held the Aggies to just 31 percent shooting from the field. 12-and-a-half minutes into the second half, Texas A&M had only taken nine field goals, making just one.
Tulsa's defense was suffocating throughout the game, and the first half shaped up to be a defensive struggle. Both teams went scoreless through periods of the first frame, for two or four minutes at a time. In fact, the Hurricane went almost five minutes without a field goal in the first half, from the 7:55 mark to the 3:10 mark, making three free throws during that time.
The scoring drought did not affect TU very much, as redshirt freshman Steven Idlet's jumper with 3:10 left in the half tied the score at 24 apiece. Tulsa went into the locker room at the break leading 29-28.
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