South Tulsa Today

 Tulsa couldn't overcome a late rally by East Carolina (14-13, 5-9 AAC) and dropped a 62-6 decision Tuesday night in front of 3,002 fans at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
 
Brandon Betson led Tulsa with 20 points, while Tim Dalger added 11 points and freshman Jesaiah McWright added a season-best 11 as well. ECU's Jaden Walker had a game-high 24 points.
 
Tulsa (5-22, 1-15 AAC) was down to a nine-man roster against the Pirates, while playing without leading scorer Sam Griffin (15.3 ppg) and Keyshawn Embery-Simpson, and still missing Anthony Pritchard and Nikita Konstantynovskyi.
 
"I told our team that we're not into moral victories, but we are into improvement, and we showed improvement today. What I am proud of this group is – we dealt with some injuries and after the trip back from Philly on Sunday, they just really locked in yesterday and today. That's one of our grittiest efforts that we've had, and that's what we want to be about. We've got to be able to build off that. From the charges to guys getting their nose in there, just having some grittiness. And give credit to East Carolina. They've shown that with some really good wins they've had this year. Of course, would've loved to have gotten this one for our team and our fans, but we fell a little bit short," said Tulsa Head Coach Eric Konkol.
 
Leading by four points at the 7:43 mark, the Hurricane went on a 5:32 scoreless streak with under 10 minutes remaining as the Pirates took a five-point lead at 52-47 with 2:30 left in the contest and made it 54-48 at the 1:49 mark.
 
Sterling Gaston-Chapman's second basket of the game at the 1:07 mark brought Tulsa to within two points at 54-52. Brandon Johnson's three-pointer put the Pirates back on top 57-52 with 0:37 left on the game clock. Betson's jumper made it 57-54 and McWright made it a one-point game, 57-56, with 0:10 remaining.
 
The teams exchanged free throws in the final 0:08, ECU making 5-of-6 and Tulsa 4-of-4. A miss on ECU's final attempt with 0:04 on the clock gave Tulsa one last chance, but the Hurricane couldn't get off a shot, ending the game at 62-60.
 
In the first half, Tulsa led for over 12 minutes to build its largest lead of 11 points and held on for a seven-point lead, 32-25, at halftime.
 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was low scoring in the early going with a total of 18 points being scored and the game being tied three times in the first seven minutes. Tulsa built a seven-point lead at 21-14 on two Brandon Betson free throws at the 8:41 mark.
 
The Hurricane led by as many as 11 points in the first half at 30-19 when Tim Dalger made one-of-two free throws. ECU cut the deficit to seven points going into halftime.
 
At the half, both teams shot under 40-percent from the field, Tulsa at 39 and ECU at 32-percent. Tulsa shot just 15-percent and ECU 16-percent from behind the arc. The two teams each connected on better than 85-perent from the free throw line.
 
Betson led the Hurricane with nine first-half points, while ECU's Jaden Walker had a game-high 12 points.
 
It took Tulsa nearly four minutes to score its first basket of the second half as the Pirates closed its seven-point halftime deficit to one point at 32-31 before Betson scored two straight layups to push the Hurricane lead to 36-31 at the 15:52 mark. A Tim Dalger dunk with 10:14 remaining put the Hurricane ahead 40-35.
 
Tulsa led 47-43 with just under eight minutes to play before the Pirates went on an 8-0 run to take a 51-47 lead with 5:04 on the game clock.
 
The Hurricane cut a five-point deficit with 0:37 to play and made it a one-point game at 57-56 with 0:10 left. ECU made one more free throw (5-6) than Tulsa (4-4) in that final 0:08 stretch to hold on to the victory.
 
 
GAME NOTES
•    This was the 30th meeting between Tulsa and East Carolina … the series now stands at 23-7.
•    The loss was Tulsa's ninth straight.
•    Tulsa led at halftime for only the ninth time this season.
•    Brandon Betson had his 12th double-digit scoring game on the year and 39th of his career.
•     Betson's 20 points was a season and career high.
•     Freshman Jesaiah McWright scored a season-high 11 points bettering his previous-high of seven points in the first meeting at East Carolina.
•    Tim Dalger had his 12th double-figure scoring game of the season and the 15th of his career.
•     Bryant Selebangue had his 15th double-digit scoring game and 15th double-figure rebounding game of the season
•     It was also Selebangue's 10th double-double of the season. 

Original source can be found here