TULSA (AP) — Tulsa coach Doug Wojcik has led the TU basketball program to back-to-back 25-win seasons, but Wednesday’s 86-65 victory over Oklahoma State will go down as the first statement victory in his five years at the Tulsa helm.
“I think we turned a big page in our program,” said Wojcik, who gave the crowd two ferocious fist-pumps as he exited the court at halftime. “I thought this was a huge game for our fans, for our players and program.”
Under Wojcik, Tulsa had not defeated in-state rivals OSU or Oklahoma or Conference USA powerhouse Memphis — three measuring sticks for the TU faithful — until a nearly flawless first half led to Wednesday’s blowout.
The Hurricane hit 60 percent of their first-half shots and dominated inside as they rolled to a 46-31 halftime lead.
“I’m not going to come up here and make excuses,” OSU coach Travis Ford said. “We just got it handed to us tonight. We got beat by a very good team that was very well coached. They took it to us, plain and simple. No excuses here on our end. They are good, very good.”
It was OSU’s first trip to Tulsa since 1996 and its first visit to the on-campus Reynolds Center, which opened in December 1998.
Justin Hurtt hit 7 of 11 field goals and led Tulsa with 21 points. Most of the post-game praise went to Bishop Wheatley, who scored a career-high 17 points, added nine rebounds and helped limit OSU’s leading scorer, James Anderson, to 10 points, 12.8 below his average.
“They came out and hit us first,” Anderson said. “They threw the first punch. That’s something coach talked about. We have to go out and hit them first. They got in their comfort zone and they just ran away from us.”
Stephen Idled scored 13 points for Tulsa (6-1), Jerome Jordan had 11 points, nine rebounds and six blocks before leaving with a cramp, and Ben Uzoh had 11 points and six assists.
Ray Penn led OSU (6-1) with 21 points, followed by Marshall Moses with 13 points. The Cowboys were outrebounded 42-24 and outshot 56 percent to 39 percent as Tulsa blocked nine shots.
Tulsa went inside to the 7-foot Jordan early and often. He scored six of TU’s first nine points, and Tulsa’s inside dominance eventually forced OSU into a seldom-used zone defense. Tulsa had the answer for that as well, as Donte Medder came off the bench to hit two 3-pointers.
After Tulsa jumped out to a 21-10 lead, OSU closed to within 29-25 on a drive by Obi Muonelo.
Tulsa closed out the half with a 17-6 run. Medder hit two 3-pointers, Hurtt hit two driving shots, including a slam on a lob pass from Uzoh, and Wheatley scored twice around the basket to lead the run.
OSU opened the second half with a 6-0 run, but a pair of 3-pointers by Uzoh gave Tulsa a 63-43 cushion with 10:15 remaining. The Cowboys pressed frantically in the final 10 minutes but were never able to cut the margin below 13 points.
“It’s just a great win for us,” Wojcik said. “I’m really happy for the seniors (Wheatley, Uzoh and Jordan). I wrote on the board before the game, ‘Reward Yourselves.’ They’ve put a lot of hard work in to get us to this point.”
OSU was coming off a victory in the Las Vegas Invitational but Ford cautioned his team was going to have some growing pains.
“We are a very young basketball team,” Ford said. “We are not that good yet. We were glad we were 6-0 and glad we are 6-1, but we have a long way to go as a basketball team.”
