S&T trailed by only five at halftime, but the Golden Hurricane made a huge run to open the second half to take control of the contest as they held the Miners to just 17 points in the second half of play.
The Miners held the lead on three occasions in the opening half, but Tulsa’s three-point shooting in the first 20 minutes allowed the Golden Hurricane to grab the lead for good at 11-8. Tulsa made five of its first seven shots from beyond the arc and finished the first half connecting on 7-of-15 long range attempts.
But even with the stellar shooting by the Golden Hurricane in the early stages of the opening half, the Miners were able to stay within striking distance. S&T trailed 24-20 at the 8:35 mark after a basket by Julian Johnson, then fell behind by 11 after a seven-point Tulsa run. The Miners answered back by scoring seven straight of their own to get back to within four, then trimmed the lead to two at 33-31 on Aaron Hays’ jumper from the wing with 12 seconds to go in the half.
Tulsa followed that with a three-point play from Jordan Clarkson to gain a 36-31 lead at the intermission.
The Golden Hurricane, a member of Conference USA who played in the National Invitational Tournament in each of the last two seasons, opened the second half by outscoring S&T 18-2 in the first seven-plus minutes to take a 21-point lead and led by at least 19 from that point on.
Bryce Foster was the only Miner to finish in double figures with 13 points. Nusrath Khan added seven points and Carlton Westbrook had six for S&T. The Miners shot 40.7 percent in the opening half, but made only 25.9 percent after the break to finish at 33.3 percent.
Tulsa shot 50 percent from the floor in the game and had three players in double figures, led by Clarkson with 16 points.
The Miners will play their final exhibition game Saturday when they face Livin’ The Dream in a 5 p.m. game at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building. Missouri S&T opens its regular season at home as well a week later against Blackburn.
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