Prairie View A&M @ Tulsa preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 16, 2006 ) Prairie View A&M 54, Tulsa 83

Tulsa had to adjust its defensive strategy after an injury to its top defender and the results were good last week against Kansas State. The Golden Hurricane will try to repeat that defensive performance when they host Prairie View A&M on Thursday.

Tulsa junior guard DaQuan Jeffries (11.4 points) had surgery after hurting his hand in practice days before the Kansas State game and will be out for at least four weeks. The Golden Hurricane used different zones and a solid team effort to frustrate Kansas State. "The past couple games I feel like we've been playing good defensively; we were just missing one thing every other game," sophomore forward Martins Igbanu told the Tulsa World. "I feel like (the Kansas State game) was the first game when we had everything completed together as a team. That feels good." The Panthers have lost four straight to start a string of eight consecutive true road games.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, ESPN3.

ABOUT PRAIRIE VIEW A&M (2-7): Junior guard Gary Blackston (17.7 points, 6.3 rebounds) earned his second Southwestern Athletic Conference player of the week honors after averaging 22.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals last week against Hawaii and Texas A&M. Senior forward Zachary Hamilton adds 17.6 points and 4.2 rebounds and junior guard Dennis Jones is averaging 9.7 points since joining the starting lineup three games ago. The Panthers rank last nationally in assists, averaging 8.1 on 21.9 field goals.

ABOUT TULSA (5-4): Senior forward Junior Etou leads the Golden Hurricane with 17.3 points and 6.4 rebounds while shooting 52.2 percent from the 3-point line. Junior guard Sterling Taplin adds 12.9 points and 4.0 assists while Jeffries - who was shooting 62.1 percent from the floor before the injury - was the team's third-leading scorer. Igbanu (7.1 points, 4.6 rebounds) had 10 points and seven rebounds in his first start Saturday in place of Jeffries.

TIP-INS

1. Tulsa has outrebounded each of its last three opponents by double digits (for a plus-16.7 average) after being minus-4.5 through its first six games.

2. The Golden Hurricane are 3-1 this season when Etou scores at least 20 points.

3. Hamilton has scored in double figures in 16 consecutive games dating back to last season.

PREDICTION: Tulsa 78, Prairie View A&M 62