PJ Haggerty’s career-high 32 points helped spark Tulsa’s second-half rally to knock off No. 24 South Florida 76-70, ending the nation’s longest active men’s basketball winning streak Saturday at Tulsa, Okla.
Cobe Williams added 23 points — going 5-for-6 on free-throw attempts in the final two minutes — as the Golden Hurricane (16-14, 7-11 American Athletic Conference) avenged a Feb. 14 loss to the Bulls. Williams also collected 11 rebounds.
South Florida (23-6, 16-2) had won 15 consecutive games and already clinched the AAC regular-season title, but this might have damaged its quest for an NCAA Tournament bid if it needs to gain entry via an at-large bid. The Bulls managed only 11 points during a 10-minute stretch as Tulsa burst into the lead.
The Bulls’ Kasean Pryor scored 29 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Chris Youngblood added 12 points and Selton Miguel had 11 points.
An 11-0 run propelled the Golden Hurricane to a 59-52 lead. Haggerty, a redshirt freshman guard who was 11-for-17 shooting from the floor, had six points and Williams notched five points during that surge.
Trailing 69-58, the Bulls made a move with seven points in 33 seconds to close within 69-65 with 1:58 left. Pryor’s drive for a basket made it 70-67 with 1:20 left. Youngblood missed a 3-pointer with a chance to trim the gap to two points and Tulsa never gave the Bulls another opening.
Tulsa, which had lost six of its previous nine games, won despite shooting 29.2 percent (7 for 24) on 3-pointers. Other than Haggerty and Williams, no other Golden Hurricane posted more than six points.
South Florida led 45-37 with about 14 minutes left, but slightly more than four minutes later, the score was 52-52.
Tulsa endured shooting woes most of the first half and trailed 37-31 at the break.
–Field Level Media
