The grins were wide on the faces of the Tulsa basketball players as they were hoisting the large silver trophy at center court Wednesday after earning the first of four championships to be handed out as part of the Acrisure Series college basketball tournament in Palm Desert, Calif., this week.
Junior guard Tylen Riley said it best after his team’s hard-fought 63-60 victory over Northern Iowa.
“A lot of us haven’t won something like this, you know championships like this and this is a nice tough little tournament, (Northern Iowa) is a great team, so it feels real good,” said Riley who joined Tulsa this year after playing his first two years at Cal Baptist.
Tulsa head coach Eric Konkol said this is a meaningful trophy for this group, which consists of several new pieces from a team that finished 10th out of 14 teams in the American Athletic Conference last season.
“We’re a collection of a lot of brand new guys, and we’re trying to build something here at Tulsa,” said Konkol who is starting his third season as the Golden Hurricane’s head man. “So every opportunity to be able to go onto a neutral site, play two games in two days against quality opponents and find a way to win is an important program-builder for us.”
Tulsa had no problem in Tuesday’s first game, taking down San Jose State 81-51, but the title game against Northern Iowa was a nail-biter throughout.
Tulsa led by seven at the half, but Northern Iowa rode the inside presence of Will Hornseth who led all scorers in the game with 16 points, to a 21-11 run to open the second half and take the lead.
To their credit, Tulsa didn’t wilt and in fact struck right back with a run fueled by Riley. He scored nine straight Hurricane points and then hit Romad Dean with an alley-oop pass. Those 11 quick points were part of a 15-4 run that allowed Tulsa to open a 60-52 lead, a lead they never relinquished.
“I live for those type of moments,” Riley said. “My teammates really lifted me up because I had a bad first half. But I didn’t get in my head because my guys were playing their hearts out.”
Northern Iowa didn’t go away quietly. Kyle Pock hit one of his four 3-pointers in the game with 1:23 left to cut the Tulsa lead t 60-57. After a timeout, Konkol drew up a play for sharp-shooter Miles Barnstable who drilled a 3-pointer of his own to bring it back to a 6-point lead. Barnstable, who finished Wednesday’s game with 11 points, was named the MVP of this pod of the tournament.
The Panthers sank one more 3-pointer to cut it to 63-60, and a missed Tulsa free throw gave them one last chance, but a buzzer-beating 3-point attempt didn’t even draw iron and Tulsa began its celebration.
Both team are now 6-1 on the season as the loss knocked Northern Iowa from the ranks of the unbeaten.
San Jose State 63, Loyola Chicago 51
In the third-place game, it was the Spartans pulling away late for the victory. Colby Garland and Jermaine Washington both had 15 points to lead San Jose State (3-4).
Miles Rubin and Chuck Love both scored 13 to lead Loyola (1-7).
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: A trophy for Tulsa as the Golden Hurricane edge Northern Iowa fr title
Reporting by Shad Powers, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
