After a disappointing opening-night loss, the Golden Hurricane bounces back to start the season 1-1.
Women’s basketball is finally back, although the University of Tulsa struggled to make a splash their opening week. Their opener against Incarnate Word was a back-and-forth battle which eventually saw TU unable to close out their lead in the final minutes, but against Rogers State the Golden Hurricanes quickly ran out ahead of the Hillcats and stayed ahead for an impressive 27-point victory. With a long season ahead, hopefully the Golden Hurricane can learn from its early tumble against Incarnate Word and tack a sixth straight winning season to head coach Angie Nelp’s record. She is the first coach at TU to have a winning record in her first five seasons, and after this week she now sits second all-time with 96 victories, only behind Matilda Mossman who won 119 in her 10 years at TU.
Incarnate Word hails from the Southland Conference, which is generally considered less competitive than the American Conference, and should have been a manageable victory for Tulsa. However, UIW consistently kept Tulsa within 10 points, and took the lead multiple times. When it came down to the last two minutes, the Cardinals scored 12 straight points while the Golden Hurricane missed three 3-point attempts, allowing the Cardinals to overtake TU in the final moments. This was the Golden Hurricane’s first ever season opener loss with Nelp at the helm. However, junior Alexa Kinas, who transferred in the offseason from Loyola University Chicago, made an instant impact, collecting 16 points, nine rebounds and three steals on her debut. Mady Cartwright, a returning star in her senior year, hit two career milestones, with 150 career 3-pointers and 250 career made free throws. This puts her in the top 10 Tulsa women’s players in both categories, and she could easily move within the top 10 points category if she contributes even a fourth of what she put up last year. All in all, despite the disappointing loss, there were a lot of bright spots in Tuesday’s performance.
The Golden Hurricane quickly worked to remove the bad taste of losing when they played Rogers State. They opened with an incredible 20-point run, a deficit which Rogers State would never come close to erasing. Kinas again proved that she was an excellent offseason addition, providing nine points, six rebounds, two steals and a block, while freshman McKenzie Jones also impressed, with nine points and two steals. After the game, Nelp said that “we showed a lot of our depth, a lot of our versatility,” noting that every player had scored against RSU. Indeed, TU consistently proved they had the firepower to push RSU around, with Kinas saying “we love to cause chaos” with their high-speed offense. RSU was the very heavy underdog in this one, but the ability to comeback from a disappointing loss and crush the next opponent is a sign that this Golden Hurricane team is well prepared mentally and ready to perform well heading into tougher non-conference games and then conference play.
Next, the Golden Hurricane will play Oklahoma State University, who are currently ranked #22 in the nation. This will be an incredibly difficult test for TU, as OSU is already off to a strong start after dominating both Southern University and Morgan State in their first two matchups. The real struggle for TU will be to keep the incredible depth of scoring and rebounding they demonstrated against Rogers State against a nationally ranked team. If they can impress, or even win, the Golden Hurricane will be a strong contender for the American Conference Championship.
