Memphis used a strong second-half to pull out an 83-81 victory over Tulsa Sunday afternoon at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
Tulsa's 13-point halftime lead succumbed to a Memphis team that scored 50 second-half points. The Tigers connected on 17-of-24 field goals for 71-percent in the second half, while Tulsa made 10 field goals and shot 45-percent from the field in the final 20 minutes.
After Memphis took a six-point lead at 82-76 with 2:25 on the game clock, the Hurricane battled back to within one point at 82-81 after layups from Jackson and Griffin and a Jackson free throw made it 82-81. Trailing 83-81 with 0:24 on the clock, Tulsa couldn't get off a final shot, falling by the two-point margin.
Jeriah Horne led Tulsa with 19 points and seven rebounds. Darien Jackson scored 15 points, Sam Griffin had 13 and LaDavius Draine tied his season-high with 12 points. Sixteen of Horne's points came from the free throw line as he converted 16-of-18, both career-highs. Memphis' Tyler Harris had a game-high 24 points, followed by 18 from Josh Minott, as both players came off the bench for the Tigers.
The win snapped a three-game Memphis losing streak and improving the Tigers' record to 10-8 overall and 3-5 in league action. Tulsa dropped its sixth straight and fell to 6-11 and 0-6 in the American.
Tulsa opened the second half scoring the first two points to make the score 48-33 before the Tigers cut Tulsa's 15-point lead to seven by going on an 11-2 run. Memphis trimmed the home team's lead to 50-44 at the 15:45 mark before Horne's free throw stopped Tulsa's 3-plus minute scoring drought.
The Hurricane pushed its lead back to nine points at 59-50, but Memphis went on another run outscoring Tulsa 9-2 in less than two minutes to get within two points at 61-59 with 11:50 left in the contest.
Memphis outscored the Hurricane 26-15 in the first eight minutes of the second half and had a 37-21 edge in the first 13 minutes. The Tigers took its first lead since 5-4 early in the contest when Malcolm Dandridge's layup gave the visitors a 68-67 lead with 7:11 left to play.
Memphis took its largest lead at seven points at 76-69 with 4:06 remaining in the game. The Hurricane outscored Memphis in the final four minutes 12-7, but couldn't pull it out in the final seconds.
At the start, Tulsa took a 7-5 lead on a Sam Griffin three-pointer at the 17:42 mark and built that lead to eight points in the next six minutes to eight points at 17-9. The Tigers cut its deficit to one point at 20-19 at the 9:55 mark and then again 22-21 with 9:28 to play.
The Hurricane took its first double-digit lead when LaDavius Draine's trey made the score 34-23 with 5:50 left on the first-half clock.
Tulsa grabbed its largest first-half lead of 13 points on a Tim Dalger layup at the 3:13 mark that made the score 42-39. A Darien Jackson layup and two Horne free throws kept Tulsa's advantage at 13 points to close out the half.
At intermission, the Hurricane held a 46-33 lead after shooting 52-percent from the field, 54.5-percent from three-point range and 82.4-percent from the line. Horne led the way with 12 points, but only three points from the field as he knocked don 9-of-10 freebies.
Memphis shot 35-percent from the field and 42-percent from behind the arc in the first half.
Tulsa's 46 first-half points was the most in the opening 20 minutes for the Hurricane this year, bettering the previous high of 46 coming in the season opener against Northwestern State. It also tied the most in any half as Tulsa scored 46 points in the second half against Alcorn State.
Tulsa will be on the road Wednesday night in New Orleans against the Tulane Green Wave. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. (CT) on ESPNU. Tulsa returns to the Reynolds Center next Saturday to host South Florida in a 7 p.m. game.