Saturday, March 18, 2000Impressive Tulsa earns shot at UC
The Associated PressNASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tulsa is becoming an old hand at winning first-round games in the NCAA Tournament.
With former Western Hills star David Shelton scoring 21 points, Tulsa routed UNLV 89-62 on Friday in the NCAA South Regional. This was the fifth time in six years the Golden Hurricane have won in the opening round.
Now the work gets considerably harder. Seventh-seeded Tulsa (30-4) goes into the second round Sunday against No. 2 seed UC, a 64-47 winner over North Carolina-Wilmington.
“We've set the table for something special,” Tulsa coach Bill Self said. “Sunday's game will determine whether we had an unbelievable season or a pretty good season.
“We knew we were going to have a pretty good season, but this is the time when seasons are judged.”
Tenth-seeded UNLV (23-8) lost to both UC and Tulsa this season, and coach Bill Bayno thinks Tulsa might have a chance with Bearcats star Ken yon Martin sidelined by a broken leg.
“That may be one of the better games of the tournament,” Bayno said.
Friday's game certainly wasn't despite featuring two of the nation's top-scoring teams. Only Tulsa showed what it could do.
The Golden Hurricane hit their first six shots, while UNLV had only six field goals in the entire first half. The Runnin' Rebels couldn't get going with Tulsa harassing them with 11 steals and shadowing UNLV guard Mark Dickel, the nation's assist leader.
UNLV managed to get within 10 twice, the last on a drive by Danny Brotherson with 8:51 left in the first half, making it 24-14. But the Runnin' Rebels hit only one more shot the rest of the half, and Tulsa broke the game open by finishing the half with a 15-2 run, highlighted by three straight 3s — including two by Dante Swanson — for a 44-22 lead.
“That's probably as good a 30 minutes as we've played all year,” Self said. “I thought we came out and got off to a great start.”
Tony Heard and Greg Harrington added 16 points each for Tulsa, and Marcus Hill added 14.
Shelton said putting up points was easy with teammates worried more about finding the right shot instead of shooting themselves.
“We was getting the ball in places to guys where we knew they could score. I don't think one time in the first half that we got the ball to a guy who wasn't in his scoring area,” he said. “We got teammates involved early, and that was the key to getting everybody off to a good start.”
UNLV (62) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp Brotherson 36 5-11 5-8 3-7 1 3 15 Johnson 22 2-6 0-0 1-2 0 3 4 Kambala 31 7-19 7-10 5-13 2 4 21 Diggs 37 5-17 2-3 1-2 2 4 14 Dickel 40 0-3 1-4 0-6 6 2 1 Popoola 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Booker 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Dotson 18 2-6 1-2 2-4 0 3 5 Stewart 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 Epps 9 0-1 2-2 0-1 0 1 2 _______________________________________________ TOTALS 200 21-64 18-29 12-35 12 20 62 _______________________________________________Tournament game coverage at Cincinnati.com/madnessPercentages: FG-.328, FT-.621. 3-Point Goals: 2-16, .125 (Brotherson 0-1, Johnson 0-2, Diggs 2-9, Dickel 0-3, Stewart 0-1). Team rebounds: 5. Blocked shots: 1 (Popoola). Turnovers: 17 (Dickel 5, Johnson 4, Diggs 3, Dotson 2, Kambala 2, Brotherson). Steals: 6 (Brotherson 2, Kambala 2, Diggs, Johnson).
TULSA (89) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp Coley 30 2-5 1-3 2-14 5 1 5 Hill 20 6-9 0-0 2-5 5 4 14 Kurtz 23 2-3 0-0 0-5 1 4 4 Harrington 31 5-10 4-5 0-3 0 3 16 Heard 30 5-11 1-2 2-4 6 3 14 Davis 4 0-1 0-0 0-3 0 2 0 Swanson 19 3-7 1-1 1-2 1 1 9 Reed 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2 Hooper 2 0-0 2-2 1-1 0 0 2 Shelton 26 7-16 5-6 2-5 0 3 21 Johnson 7 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 2 2 Mcdaniel 6 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 1 0 _______________________________________________ TOTALS 200 32-65 14-19 10-43 19 24 89 _______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.492, FT-.737. 3-Point Goals: 11-23, .478 (Coley 0-1, Hill 2-4, Harrington 2-4, Heard 3-6, Swanson 2-3, Shelton 2-5). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked shots: 5 (Coley 2, Kurtz, Swanson, Mcdaniel). Turnovers: 13 (Harrington 3, Hill 3, Kurtz 2, Coley, Davis, Heard, Johnson, Shelton). Steals: 11 (Coley 4, Harrington 2, Kurtz 2, Johnson, Shelton, Swanson). __________________________________ Unlv 22 40 - 62 Tulsa 44 45 - 89 __________________________________ Technical fouls: None. Officials: Jody Silvester, Joe Demayo, Gene Monje.
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