SMU’s Papa Dia drives the lane for two of his 18 points in Saturday night’s 72-71 loss to Tulsa. (Stuart Palley)
Saturday night’s men’s basketball game between the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (9-6, 1-2) and the SMU Mustangs (6-10, 0-3) was a classic conference game. It featured many lead changes, pressure defense, minimal mistakes, high energy and was decided by the last play of the game.
The first half of play was controlled by the Hurricane because of its high shooting percentages from the field. Tulsa’s lead was in single digits for nearly the entire half, until a Sam Mitchell free throw put Tulsa up by 11 points with only 2:32 left in the first half.
Instead of folding under the pressure of Tulsa’s large first-half lead, the Mustangs came thundering back. The climax of the Mustangs’ late first-half surge occurred when junior post Bamba Fall slammed a hard dunk home to cut the lead to five as time expired. SMU trailed Tulsa by a score of 33-38 at the end of the half.
It was Fall’s defensive presence along with freshman Papa Dia’s 14 points in the first half that kept the Mustangs in the game. SMU head coach Matt Doherty was thrilled with Dia’s effort. Doherty commented, “Papa did this against a man-to-man defense and a real good defensive team. His growth has been unbelievable and it will continue to get better.”
What made Dia’s performance spectacular was in the way he scored. His baskets were almost always contested, and sometimes he was facing double teams. Man-to-man defense presents more challenges to post players scoring ability than a zone defense. In spite of the challenges, Dia had one of his best scoring performances of his young career.
SMU continued buildingupon its late first-half momentum in the second half of play.
The Mustangs mainly rode the play and leadership of Jon Killen in their second half surge.
Killen scored 17 points in the half and hit a clutch three-pointer with only 53.6 seconds remaining in the half, giving SMU a 69-68 lead. On the shot, Killen said, “It was one of the options. I came out of the huddle and knew I was going to take that shot.”
On the next play, Tulsa came down the court and put the ball in the hands of its leading scorer, Ben Uzoh. Uzoh took a mid-range jump shot that bounced off of the iron and was tipped in by Tulsa’s Jerome Jordan.
After an SMU timeout, senior guard Derrick Roberts took the ball right to the lane and drew the foul with only six seconds left. Unfazed by the pressure, Roberts knocked down both free throws to give SMU a one-point lead.
Immediately after the second free throw, Tulsa’s Brett McDade took the inbound pass the full length of the court and made a lay-up as time expired. It gave Tulsa a one-point lead and eventually the 72-71 win.
In the loss, Killen scored 19 points while adding six assists to his season total. He was able to produce some of the best numbers of his season and career, while committting only two turnovers. Killen is averaging six assists in his last seven games.
In spite of losing such a close game, Doherty said, “I am very proud of our guys…we can’t let the wins and losses determine how we feel about our effort.” The loss is SMU’s fifth in a row and third straight conference loss.
The Mustangs will try again for their first conference win of the season on Wednesday at Tulane at 7 p.m.
