Women’s Basketball Drops Nailbiter In Closing Seconds To Tulsa

Micah Gray’s desperation heave from just beyond halfcourt as time expired was no good as the visiting Tulsa Golden Hurricane escaped with an 83-80 victory in what was easily the best game overall that Gray and her teammates put together all season inside the H&PE Arena.

The team this afternoon that donned the Maroon & Gray played together as a team, took care of the basketball giving up just nine turnovers all game, forced Tulsa (10-3) into numerous uncharacteristic mistakes and made their opponents earn every single point they made.

The effort put forth this afternoon wasn’t that of a team filled with freshmen, sophomores and transfers. While it wasn’t a well-oiled machine with parts than can be tweaked here and there, should the TSU team tonight show up on a nightly basis in the SWAC will see more conference victories than last season’s 11.

Down 11-6 midway through the first quarter, TSU quickly got on a roll scoring the next seven points on a three from Gray, a layup from Donterria Brown and a layup by Mykaylyn Davis with 3:59 left in the first quarter.

Neither team would take complete control of the other and TSU would lead 20-19 at the end of the first quarter.

A Maya Mayberry three-pointer with 2:21 left in the second quarter gave the Golden Hurricane a 35-29 advantage.

Brown’s jumper with 1:12 left in the half and then Andriana Avent’s three-pointer with 20 seconds left in the half made it 35-34 in favor of Tulsa.

A 7-0 run over the course of 57 seconds midway through the third showed Tulsa that Texas Southern was going to take it going from being down 47-41 to being up 48-47.

Up by a score of 54-49 with 1:23 left in the third quarter. Tulsa would give up a jumper on the paint to Avent and then a pair of made free throws by Taniya Lawson for a 54-53 Golden Hurricane lead with just one quarter remaining.

The fourth quarter looked as if the wheels had fallen of wagon as the Tigers simply could not buy a basket and fell behind by 14 points with 2:08 left in the game. Despite the setback, Brown scored two straight and Avent capped off a 6-0 run with a layup to draw within 79-71 with 1:10 left. Tulsa answered with a three-point play but Gray countered with a three-pointer of her own followed by a Mykayln Davis steal which led to another Gray basket as TSU cut the deficit down to six with 22 seconds to go before a Tulsa free throw made it 83-76. Kamryn Bates’ free throws and a Gray layup along with Tulsa’s inability to make clutch free throws down the stretch set up the final sequence that nearly saw TSU tie it up as Brown grabbed the rebound and fed it to Gray for her last-second three-point attempt.

Tulsa was 1-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 19 seconds. The Golden Hurricane was 10-for-30 from long range but were just 13-for-22 from the free throw line.

Mayberry led all scorers with 22 points as Tulsa put all five starters in double figures with two earning double-doubles.

Gray finished the night with 20 points and four rebounds while Avent tallied 19 points, seven rebounds, four steals and three assists. Brown also entered the double-digits in scoring 14 points to go along with six rebounds, a blocked shot, a steal and an assist.
 
UP NEXT
The Tigers will have a couple days off to celebrate the holiday season before hitting the gym to prepare for their final non-conference matchup of the season when they travel to Orlando, Fla., to take on the University of Central Florida on Thursday, Dec. 29, The tip is slated for 5 p.m. CST.