Tulsa Falls to Santa Cruz
January 24, 2014 - NBA G League (G League)
Tulsa 66ers News Release
TULSA, Okla. - The Tulsa 66ers fell to the Santa Cruz Warriors, 102-99, on Friday night at the SpiritBank Event Center.
Rodney Bartholomew, the defending NBA D-League Performer of the Week, recorded 16 points and 19 rebounds, posting 16-or-more points and 15-or-more rebounds for the third consecutive game. His 19 boards were the most by a 66er since Marcus Lewis collected 20 in February 2012.
Reggie Williams led all scorers with 21 points with eight rebounds and Ron Anderson tallied his second double-double of the year with 14 points and 12 boards. Xavier Alexander and Mario Little scored 14 and 13 points respectively.
The 66ers outrebounded the Warriors 53-38, posting as many or more rebounds than their opponent for the twelfth time in the past 13 games. After being outrebounded 14-8 in the opening quarter, Tulsa had a 45-24 rebounding advantage over the remaining three quarters and held Santa Cruz to three offensive boards.
"Our intensity on defense and forcing Santa Cruz to take contested shots led to our rebounding success," said 66ers Head Coach Darko Rajakovic. "Our guys did a great job defending Seth Curry, who leads their team in scoring with 22 points a game. In the game tonight we held him to just two points. That part of our game was encouraging. We had over 50 rebounds and that's something to take pride in and continue to develop."
In their past three games, the 66ers are outrebounding their opponents by an average of 52.3 to 39.0.
The Warriors (14-9) got out to a 36-26 lead midway through the second quarter before Tulsa (7-16) outscored Santa Cruz 27-10 in the remainder of the half, including a 16-4 run in the final five and a half minutes. Tulsa used a Williams three in the heart of the run to take their first lead of the game as the 66ers brought a 53-46 lead into the break.
The 66ers continued to hold off the Warriors in the third quarter, taking a 79-70 lead into the fourth. The Warriors fought back to take a 93-92 lead with two and half minutes remaining in the game before Little drained a three to put Tulsa back up two. Santa Cruz scored four straight points followed by a made foul shot from Tulsa's Scoop Jardine to make it a one-point Warrior advantage with just under a minute to play. Santa Cruz went 4-for-4 from the free throw stripe over the next 40 seconds to take a five-point lead.
With 5.3 seconds remaining, Jardine sunk a three-pointer to put Tulsa within two. Scott Machado was intentionally fouled and went 1-for-2 from the line to give the 66ers one last chance to tie it. Little heaved an on-target half-court shot immediately after the inbound, falling just short on the front iron and ending the game.
The Warriors were led by Cameron Jones with 19 points and five boards.
Tulsa is back in action at the SpiritBank Event Center on Saturday night, hosting the Idaho Stampede at 7 p.m.
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