Tulsa wins rivalry game over Wichita State on buzzer-beating three-pointer
A sold-out arena, a hotly-contested game between two teams vying for the top of the conference and a walk-off, buzzer-beater that led to a court storming.
For the first Wichita State-Tulsa basketball game to matter this much in three decades, Saturday’s showdown in Tulsa certainly provided enough excitement to restore the passion that made it such a great rivalry in the 1980s.
Elijah Joiner drilled a double-clutch, falling-down, game-winning three-pointer as time expired to lift Tulsa to a 54-51 win over No. 23 Wichita State and send Tulsa fans spilling onto the court at Reynolds Center in celebration. Not a bad way to inject life back into a rivalry that WSU had recently dominated.
“I guess it does today,” WSU coach Gregg Marshall said when asked if the rivalry mattered again.
Tulsa (15-6) received another dose of good news following the game when Cincinnati knocked off Houston, leaving the Golden Hurricane alone atop the American Athletic Conference standings with a 7-1 record. Meanwhile, WSU (17-4) fell two games off the chase at 5-3.
“It’s deflating for sure,” WSU freshman Tyson Etienne said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well at all. We turned the ball over a lot. The fact we were still in the game tied at the end, then that happens, that’s how we lose... that was hard. It was definitely hard for us.”
WSU had its own chance at a go-ahead shot in the final seconds, but came away without even a shot attempt in a devastating shot-clock violation that set Tulsa up for its last-second heroics. WSU entrusted Jamarius Burton on an isolation drive at the end of the clock, but he was rebuffed in the lane and his last-ditch effort to pass to Dexter Dennis was denied.
“JB had finally gotten it going and he made a couple shots there in the second half off the bounce,” Marshall said. “I could have gone (Burton) or Grant (Sherfield) and I went with JB on just an iso play. We wanted to run it with five seconds, then just get it up on the glass. We had bigger guys in there offensive rebounding.”
Not only did WSU rob itself of a potential go-ahead shot or an offensive rebound (WSU finished with 15 for the game), but it also allowed the clock to stop with 3.3 seconds remaining. Tulsa did have a timeout remaining if it rebounded a miss, but less time would have likely been on the clock if WSU would have at least attempted a shot.
Instead, Tulsa had 3.3 seconds to go 94 feet. That was just enough time for Joiner to catch at halfcourt, dribble to the right wing, double-pump a shot over the outstretched hands of Trey Wade while falling down.
“It felt good leaving, but I didn’t know if it was going to go in or not,” said Joiner, who finished with a career-best 22 points on a career-best five three-pointers. “But id definitely did feel good leaving my hand.
“Coach just told me if I get it, make a play and I made a play.”
“The good lord carried that thing to the net,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith added.
WSU will have plenty of regrets on the offensive end that let another superb defensive effort end in a loss. Tulsa’s shape-shifting matchup zone befuddled the Shockers into 34.5% shooting from the field and 6 of 31 three-pointers. Jaime Echenique scored a team-best 15 points and 10 rebounds, although he was limited to just two points in the second half. WSU missed 15 of 18 three-pointers in the second half and shot 31% from the field in the final 20 minutes.
But even with ugly offensive numbers like that, WSU remained competitive in the game thanks to its sturdy defense that limited Tulsa to 37.2% shooting from the field and forced 16 turnovers. WSU also held Tulsa’s leading scorer Brandon Rachal to two points on 1-of-10 shooting.
“We knew it was going to be a war,” Echenique said. “We just didn’t do the right things at the right times. We need to keep working and keep developing our game. It’s a long season. We’re right there, we’re right there. We have to understand a couple more things and everything will be good.”
Both teams traded big plays down the stretch in an exhilarating ending.
Dennis drilled a go-ahead three for a 47-46 lead, then Tulsa answered back with an alley-oop to Darien Jackson for the 48-47 lead with 3:47 remaining. Erik Stevenson gave WSU the lead back on a layup for a 49-48 lead, then Tulsa tied the game when Jackson split a pair of free throws with 1:26 remaining.
Burton put WSU in control with a go-ahead basket with 59 seconds left when he finished a spin move with a layup for a 51-49 lead. But Tulsa tied it again with 43 seconds left when Martins Igbanu made two free throws.
On WSU’s ensuing possession, Stevenson fired a three with 14 seconds left on the shot clock that missed but Burton skied for the offensive rebound and called timeout for WSU with 22 seconds remaining on the game clock. That set up WSU’s disastrous shot-clock violation.
“You have to make shots,” Marshall said. “You have to make wide-open shots. We had a hard time doing that (Saturday). Obviously we could have had more movement of the ball. We could have gotten the ball into the middle a little more. But the shots we were missing early in the first half, I’m thinking off the top of my head, four, five, six shots just wide open, no one near them. We’ve just got to knock them in.”
WSU had an ice-cold start to the second half, as it missed 10 of its first 11 shots and committed three turnovers in the first seven minutes. Yet, WSU still led 34-30 thanks to a superb defensive effort.
But Joiner would not let Tulsa go away, as the junior terrorized the Shockers in the second half. When WSU pushed its lead to 38-32 with 10:49 remaining, Joiner scored six of the seven points during a 7-0 run to take a 39-38 lead with 8:15 remaining.
Echenique was WSU’s only consistent source of offense in the first half. The senior center finished with a game-high 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the first half. Outside of Echenique, WSU missed 20 of 25 shots.
“That was a tough game,” Etienne said. “Both sides of the ball, it was just a grind. We had some good stops, they had some good stops. We have to convert on some of those and we didn’t do that. Ultimately, they made some plays down the stretch and that helped them get the win.
“We came out with a loss, but we learned from it. This doesn’t stop Wichita State Shocker basketball. We’re going to learn from this loss and take it on the chin.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2020 at 7:22 PM.
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