Taleya Mayberry scored 24 points, including a key 3-point play, that enabled Tulsa to stun Tulane 67-65 Sunday afternoon at the Reynolds Center.
The win was big for TU as Tulane entered the game in second place in Conference USA.
Tulsa (9-13 overall, 4-5 in C-USA) played tenaciously as it surged to a big early lead, overcame deficits and a comeback attempt from Tulane.
“We’ve always been a program that contends, but we‘ve always had a hard time closing out games,” Mayberry said. “To have Tulane come in here and for us get to get a victory is really big.”
Kelsee Grovey was second in team scoring with 16 points and Tiffani Couisnard picked up 10.
Mayberry got a lay-up that broke a 60-60 tie with 45.4 seconds remaining then hit a free throw to complete a 3-point play.
“We were trying to score,“ Mayberry said. “We were tied and we had to take a step up and make something happen before the close of the game.”
The clincher came with Mayberry sinking two more free throws with eight seconds left, bringing the score to 67-62.
“We had some close games that got away from us and we want to make sure we had some close games that didn’t get away from us,” Tulsa coach Matilda Mossman said. “Today, hopefully, gave us confidence that we can finish games against good teams.”
Tulsa was outshot by Tulane as the Green Wave converted 44 percent (25-of-57) of their shots while the Hurricane was 40 percent (22-of-55).
But TU shot a higher-percentage in 3-point field goals and free throws, hitting 38 percent (8-of-21) in 3s and 71 percent (15-of-21) from the foul line, while Tulane got 29 percent (5-of-17) in treys and 67 percent (10-of-15) in free throws.
The Green Wave was led by their top scorers, Whitney Bibbins and Daniel Blagg, who respectively finished with 22 and 12 points
Tulsa plays again Thursday at Houston. Game starts at 7 p.m.
Hurricane Quick Hits
* Tulsa wore pink uniforms to honor National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
Girls Scouts led the Flag Salute. Other TU women’s sports team were also recognized at various timeouts. There was even a fashion show at halftime to entertain the fans.
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