Tulsa head coach Nate Tibbetts and the parent Oklahoma City Thunder have preached defense to the 66ers since training camp opened. You could tell on Friday night that the message had been received loud and clear.
Tulsa improved to 5-5 on the season with its season-best offensive output of 108 points in a 108-90 win over West Conference leader Rio Grande Valley. But the offense may not be the biggest story to come out of the Convention Center. If you look inside the box score, you'll see that Tulsa pieced together runs of 13-2 in the first half of 19-2 to open the second half. Those two runs encompassed a span of nearly 10 minutes when the potent Viper offense mustered just two total baskets. Two.
Yes, Larry Owens looked good stroking a season-high 27 points and Cecil Brown looked smooth as well hitting 9-of-14 from the floor on his way to 22 points. However, Tibbetts knows it was defense that made the difference for Tulsa on Friday night.
"I was proud of how our starters came out and set the tone after halftime," said Tibbetts, who saw his team hit a season-best 51.8 percent of its field goal attempts while RGV made just over 40 percent. "We came out with great energy and got some important stops early. We went into halftime losing the rebounding war, but we turned that around quickly."
Tulsa edged the Vipers on the board 49-46 and forced 19 turnovers. Defense wins.
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