Manhattan @ Tulsa preview

Tulsa will look to continue building up its overall game when Manhattan pays a visit on Saturday night. The Golden Hurricane have won two straight and four of their last five contests while Manhattan comes in off a victory.

Tulsa is looking to find a balance between playing solid defense and ensuring good looks on the offensive side of the court. After some high-scoring affairs in the early stages of the season, which included three games of reaching 90 or more points, the Golden Hurricane have slowed the pace down while gearing up for the start of conference play later this month. Twice in the past three games, Tulsa has held its opponent to 65 or fewer points, something that did not happen at all in the first seven games. "We’ve been focused so much on getting better on the defensive end, and we have, we’ve gotten a lot better,'' Golden Hurricane coach Frank Haith told reporters. "We’ve got to get our fluidity back on the offensive end. But it’s going to be a tough game on Saturday. Manhattan is going to play hard. They’re going to press, they’ll play zone. Teams are going under ball screens on us, so we’ll have to find a way to be better shooters when people do that to us.''

TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN3

ABOUT MANHATTAN (4-5): The Jaspers are led by a strong group of four seniors, paced by leading scorer forward Rich Williams at 16.9 points per game. Forward Zane Waterman is fourth on the team in scoring (8.6) while guard Zavier Turner leads Manhattan with 3.8 assists per game. Calvin Crawford is also averaging 11.3 points and 6.3 rebounds.

ABOUT TULSA (6-4): Fifth-year senior Junior Etou paces the Golden Hurricane with 17.5 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. The transfer from Rutgers, who led the team in scoring last season, has reached double-digits in nine consecutive games - reaching the 20-point plateau on four occasions including a season-high 30 points on Nov. 13. He just missed his second double-double of the season in Thursday's victory, falling one rebound short.

TIP-INS

1. Tulsa has out-rebounded its opponent in four consecutive games.

2. Golden Hurricane G Sterling Taplin averages 11.8 points and a team-best 4.1 assists.

3. Manhattan is limiting opponents to 58.7 points on 40 percent shooting from the field in the past three games, including 32.5 percent from 3-point range.

PREDICTION: Tulsa 71, Manhattan 68