FAYETTEVILLE -- Tulsa freshman Tatyanan Perez didn't have time to think about where she was on the floor as the shot clock ticked down to just a few seconds.
Perez launched the ball from the left perimeter just as the shot clock expired with her team's momentum slipping away with 5:13 to play in the fourth quarter.
But the ball hit nothing but net, and it helped the Golden Hurricane knock off Arkansas 74-67 Monday night in Bud Walton Arena in front of an announced crowd of 1,166.
Tulsa hit several other long-range shots each time Arkansas threatened to cut into what was a double-digit deficit most of the second half.
Tulsa Coach Matilda Mossman pointed to baskets by Kelsee Grovey, Antoinet Webster and Perez as key shots.
"We had three kids hit huge threes toward the end of the game," Mossman said.
Tulsa (1-3) led by as many as 18 points before Arkansas (2-2) closed to within six points behind the scoring of junior Jessica Jackson, who led all scorers with 29 points.
Tulsa closed out the game at the free-throw line to secure road victory at Arkansas, where Mossman once was the head coach in the mid-1990s.
The Golden Hurricane employed a variety of defenses to try and slow Jackson, who scored seven points in the first half. Mossman said she rotated three different players on the 6-3 Jackson, including a 5-7 freshman.
"Everyone took a turn at her," Mossman said. "I thought we defended her pretty well until that last quarter and she kind of went off and got some easy looks. But we were switching everything at that point and we ended up with a 5-7 girl on her one time. It's hard to contest 6-3 when you're 5-7."
Arkansas shot 37 percent for the game and struggled to get much offense going, Coach Jimmy Dykes said.
The Razorbacks led 9-6 in the first quarter before Tulsa outscored Arkansas 8-0 and never trailed again. The Golden Hurricane built their lead to 31-22 at halftime, then started the third quarter by outscoring Arkansas 6-0 to open up a 37-22 lead, their largest of the game to that point.
"We were really stagnant and slow for a long time," Dykes said. "Finally in the fourth quarter we scored 32 points. We scored almost half of our points in the ballgame in one 10-minute period. I liked how we fought back and the energy and the quickness we had on the floor at the end. Probably should have gone to it sooner, but it's just not who we are yet. If you see us playing zone, you know something's bad, and that's where we were at tonight."
Ashley Clark led Tulsa with 15 points, Te'era Williams added 14 and Wakefield 12.
Jackson scored 22 of her game-high 29 points in the second half -- 16 in the fourth quarter.
SEC/WOMEN’S TOP 25
NO. 4 TENNESSEE 59,
CHATTANOOGA 57
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Diamond DeShields scored 17 points as No. 4 Tennessee hung on to beat Chattanooga after squandering most of a 23-point lead. DeShields was coming off a scoreless performance in a victory over No. 23 Syracuse last Friday. She had 4 points, 1 assist and 1 steal during a 6-2 run after Chattanooga had cut Tennessee’s lead to 53-51 with less than two minutes left. Mercedes Russell had 13 points and Bashaara Graves added 10 points and 11 rebounds as Tennessee (4-0) earned its 26th consecutive home victory.
Queen Alford had 19 points to lead Chattanooga (3-2), which had beaten Tennessee in two of the past three seasons.
Sports on 11/24/2015