Tulsa’s spring season hits ups and downs

Sports editor Jaralynn Tammi Morellano presents latest tennis results and men’s sign-ons.A rough round of American Athletic Conference road games hit the Golden Hurricane, neither team able to secure a win. After a back-and-forth battle with 11 lead changes and nine tied scores, women’s basketball fell short 48-56 to East Carolina on Thursday, Feb. 1. Its record has now fallen 16-6.
“Proud of our team as always,” said Head Coach Angie Nelp. “There’s a lot we’re going to be able to take from this game, learn from it, and it’s going to help our team grow.”
Temira Poindexter was able to put Tulsa on the board first, and with the aid of Delanie Crawford, the two were able to bring the Golden Hurricane an early lead. However, two minutes later, the Pirates would take control with an eight-point run. They took the quarter 13-9.
Tulsa would play impeccable defense during the second quarter, with East Carolina only making 20% of its shots (3-of-15). Its offense fell just as short, only making two more shots than the opponent. Poindexter played a key role in its scoring as her two made shots tied the game twice, once 15-15 and another 18-18. With both teams foiling one another’s offensive efforts, the score sat at a close 22-21 at the break.
East Carolina would outscore Tulsa in the third quarter to take the lead 35-34. Rebounding would prove to be Tulsa’s weakness this time around, all of its rebounds being defensive. The Pirates would have nine offensive rebounds with half being followed by second-chance points.
The majority of the fourth quarter kept those in attendance on the edge of their seats, the lead being traded off multiple times. The Pirates would prove itself hungrier when it used a 12-5 scoring run to end the game in its favor.
Men’s basketball fumbled hard against Florida Atlantic, despite PJ Haggerty paving the way with 25 points. Its record now sits 12-9 as its road record falls 1-6.
Similar to the women’s, the men secured the first points of the game when Jared Garcia sank a three-point field goal attempt. The game would stay fairly close in the first 10 minutes, Tulsa’s defense forcing multiple misses for the Owls’ offense. This vigor allowed Carlous Williams to put Tulsa up 14-13.
The Owls only needed just under five minutes to tear up the Golden Hurricane’s defense, going on an 18-1 scoring run to take a significant lead of 32-15 Tulsa outscored FAU 12-8 in the last minutes, but they would go into halftime down 27-40. The battle would only get harder.
Tulsa was firing away in the second half; however, FAU would shove those efforts right back to maintain the lead. The Owls would continue to beat Tulsa down, extending its lead to 81-57. As if things could not get worse, the Owls would score another 18-7 points to push us down further. Tulsa would hit an offensive streak of its own until it was silenced by a dunk from Owl Brenen Lorient that brought the Owls into triple-digit points. The game ended with a devastating score of 70-102.
Tulsa’s basketball program has shown a tremendous effort this season. However, there is still much to improve on. The women’s team faced North Texas on Sunday, while the men will not face the Mean Green until Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 7:00 p.m.