Woodard powers Tulsa past UConn
A fanatical effort down the stretch was finished off by James Woodard, and Tulsa came up with a win it had to have.
Woodard scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Tulsa to a 60-51 comeback win over UConn on Thursday night in front of 5,192 fans at the Reynolds Center.
‘Juice’ took over the second half with 15 points, and Tulsa players were seemingly diving for endless loose balls down the stretch.
“We had to finish the game,” said Woodard. “We had to show that we weren’t stopping until the last second. Our effort was amazing tonight. Tonight we were laying it all on the floor, doing the hustle plays, doing the little things to win.”
With a rowdy Tulsa student section encouraging the Golden Hurricane and heckling UConn players, the Huskies went cold down the stretch, and the Tulsa players responded.
“I want to credit our crowd, our fans, they really willed us,” said TU coach Frank Haith. “We appreciate having all of our students back and all of the energy in the building, there’s no question they get a part of that win.
“Obviously, it was a great program win for us. Our passion and resiliency was unbelievable. I think our guys fed off our crowd and their energy in the building. It was a tremendous win for us.”
Tulsa (11-6, 3-2 AAC) trailed by seven points early in the second half after the game was tied at 26 at halftime. With TU continuing to miss open shots, the Hurricane trailed for most of the second half.
Woodard drained a game-tying three-pointer with 5:18 remaining to make the score 46-46, and he put Tulsa ahead for good at 49-46 with another trey at the 4:34 mark.
Rashad Ray and Shaquille Harrison combined for the next five TU points, and Woodard put the game away with 51.9 seconds left when he drained a three to extend the lead to 57-49.
On the final three-pointer, Woodard was wide open, but it was early in the shot clock with a five-point lead. Woodard didn’t hesitate, and the crowd and the Tulsa players erupted.
“If he missed it, it would have been a problem,” Haith said smiling in the post-game press conference with Woodard sitting next to him. “But he’s got that ‘It’ factor.”
It was the second consecutive home victory for TU over UConn (11-5, 2-2), which is especially significant considering the Huskies won the NCAA Tournament in 2014.
Perhaps it was the black jerseys Tulsa wore. Usually wearing home white or gold, TU wore the road uniform for the first time at home this season, just as it did last year in its victory over the defending nationals champs.
Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie was clearly in a sour mood after the game.
“I give Tulsa credit. They had a great defense and our guys just didn’t shoot the basketball as well as we can,” Ollie said. “We need to do a better job and I have to do a better job coaching. That’s the bottom line.”
Tulsa was trying to come from behind for most of the game, starting with getting down 8-0. After pulling to within 8-7, the Huskies rattled off 10 consecutive points to take their biggest lead at 18-7.
But with Woodard on the bench with two fouls in the first half, the team caught fire with freshman point guard Sterling Taplin in the game, and TU pulled ahead briefly at 22-21.
“We were down big, and Juice got two fouls, and we had a lineup out there with Sterling Taplin and some other guys that helped us tie the score by the end of the half,” Haith said. “It was a great team effort.”
Sterling Gibbs hit four of nine three-pointers to lead UConn with 20 points, while Shonn Miller hit all three of his shots behind the arc and finished with 14 points. But the Huskies only hit eight of 29 treys for the game (27.6 percent).
Tulsa hit only six of 25 three-pointers (24 percent), and at times looked like it wouldn’t score again. Tulsa finished the game shooting 35.3 percent from the field, but held UConn to 30.9 percent.
“We had a lot of open looks…open threes that just didn’t go,” Haith said. “But we hung our hats on our defense. Defensively, we were terrific. We rebounded the ball, we knew we had to rebound against these guys. UConn is a tremendous team.”
Tulsa did come through from the foul line in the second half, hitting 11 of 14 (78.6 percent) in the half, and 69.6 percent for the game (18 of 26).
It was a much needed win for TU, but perhaps especially so for Haith, who has had to deal with the scrutiny of Missouri’s report of violations committed while he was the head coach. The infractions were committed by two boosters and his top assistant coach at the time, but Haith has not been implicated in any of the charges.
So the game must have been a tremendous relief for Haith.
Regardless, after starting off 0-2 in league play with losses to conference powers SMU and Cincinnati, the victory of UConn is just what the doctor ordered.
“We needed to get our mojo back, and obviously we're in a good place,” said Haith. “We need to build on what we’ve done. There’s no question this is a huge, huge win for us.”
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