Illinois St. @ Tulsa preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 25, 2016 ) Illinois St. 68, Tulsa 56

Frank Haith has watched Tulsa put together two very solid halves of offense during its stay in Conway, S.C. this week, but unfortunately for his team's tournament aspirations, they didn't come in the same game. The Golden Hurricane and their fourth-year coach continue to search for a strong 40-minute showing Sunday when they square off against Illinois State in the third-place game of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

Tulsa shot 53.3 percent in the first half to race out to an 18-point first-half advantage before taking its foot off the pedal in Thursday's 81-74 opening-round triumph over Western Michigan and converted 65.4 percent of its field-goal attempts in the second half to nearly erase a 16-point deficit during Friday's 80-78 loss to Iowa State. "We just have to play a full 40 minutes with the same effort we put into the second half," Golden Hurricane junior forward DaQuan Jeffries told reporters. The Redbirds stunned South Carolina in the opening game of the first day of the tournament, but they fell behind by 21 midway through the first half and trailed by 33 late in the second half en route to Friday's 82-64 setback against Boise State. Illinois State did itself no favors by giving up 20 offensive rebounds, leading to a 57-27 disparity on the boards.

TV: 5 p.m. ET, ESPNU

ABOUT ILLINOIS STATE (1-2): Junior guard Keyshawn Evans (22.0 points, 4.7 assists, 3.7 rebounds) led the Redbirds in scoring for the second time this season with 21 points Friday and is off to a blistering start, shooting 52.5 percent from the field and 52 percent from beyond the arc. Phil Fayne (17 points per game, 6.7 rebounds) and Milik Yarbrough (11.3 points) - each of whom came off the bench Thursday - returned to the starting lineup Friday after they were disciplined by coach Dan Muller for showing up late to a team breakfast Wednesday. Madison Williams drilled three 3-pointers against the Broncos en route to a career-high 12 points; the 6-3 sophomore guard went 1-for-19 and scored a total of 46 points last season.

ABOUT TULSA (2-2): Junior Etou continued to put his disappointing two-point performance in a season-opening loss to Lamar behind him with 25 points Friday; the 6-8 senior forward from the Congo is averaging 23.3 points on 68.6 percent shooting in the three games since. Jeffries erupted for a career-high 23 points on 9-of-10 from the field - including 4-for-4 beyond the arc - and has missed only one of his 13 field-goal attempts since arriving in South Carolina. Sterling Taplin - a 40.3 percent 3-point shooter last year - has opened the season 2-for-14 from long-range, but the junior guard has reached double figures in every game and is 10-for-20 from the field at this event after going 13-for-32 in his first two contests.

TIP-INS

1. Tulsa, which will visit Illinois State on Dec. 2, leads the all-time series against its former Missouri Valley Conference rival 18-15 after splitting a pair of meetings last season.

2. Evans paces the MVC with 13 3-pointers - a mark good for fourth in the country among players who have played three games or fewer.

3. Jeffries (77.8) and Etou (66.7) rank first and fourth in the American Athletic Conference in field-goal percentage.

PREDICTION: Tulsa 78, Illinois State 66