Tulsa outlasts Middle Tennessee to earn place in C-USA final

Javier Cortez, Staff Reporter • March 14, 2014

Tulsa booked the first spot in the 2014 Conference USA men’s basketball championship by beating the No.2 seed Middle Tennessee 76-69.

Tulsa found themselves trailing by a few points for most of the first half, but closed out the half with a 14-3 run to take a six point lead. Once Tulsa gained the lead they never looked back and with four minutes left in the second half they took a commanding eight point lead.

Middle Tennessee were led by senior forward Neiko Hunter with 19 points and sophomore guard Jaqawn Raymond with 18 points and five three-point makes. As a team Middle Tennessee was very efficient from behind the arc connecting on 40 percent of their attempted threes. The Blue Raiders end their NCAA tournament chances with a 24-9 record, but still have a chance at a NIT bid.

For the Golden Hurricane sophomore guard James Woodard scored a team high 19 points and three steals. Despite being outrebounded 39-29 the Golden Hurricane made Middle Tennessee pay forcing 21 turnovers to eight assists.

Tulsa now moves to 20-12 by winning their 10th straight game. Tulsa will play the winner of the Louisiana Tech vs. Southern Miss game in the Championship game Saturday morning at the Don Haskins Center.

Javier Cortez may be reached at [email protected]

About the Contributors

Javier Cortez, Staff Reporter

Javier Cortez is a staff reporter for The Prospector. He is a senior multimedia journalism major, with a minor in English Rhetoric. Javier was born and raised in El Paso, TX and before coming to UTEP in the summer of 2012, he graduated from Irvin High School, where he was a four-year varsity tennis player, a member of student council and a class officer for his graduating class. He has also worked for the El Paso Diablos as a sports information intern on their media relations team. In his spare time, Javier loves to write columns for the perspectives section in the school newspaper—whether it is sports, pop culture, religion, and society he loves to write about it. To go along with writing, Javier loves reading anything about sports, religion, and non-fiction.

Michaela Roman, Editor-in-Chief

Michaela is a Senior Digital Media Production major at The University of Texas at El Paso. As the Editor-in-Chief, and former Photo Editor of The Prospector, she has learned to stay organized, manage a staff of writers and photographers, meet deadlines, cover events and network with others. She also has freelance experience and a personal photography business. Michaela aspires to work as an editor for a large media outlet and one day go to graduate school to teach photojournalism.