66ers Bump Toros Back Down to .500 with 107-93 Defeat

 The Toros played host to the Tulsa 66ers in their first game back from their 10-day break.

Like recent home games Cousin started hot scoring 11 of the Toros first 12 points. His early efforts were not enough to hold on to the lead. The Toros largest lead of the night (two) came early and didn’t last long at 8-6 early in the first. By the end of the quarter they trailed by 10 at 34-24.

The deficit normally seems easy to diminish yet seemed to be out of the Toros reach the majority of the game.

Tulsa’s speed and ability to move around the court made it seem as if they had six men on the court. For every bucket the Toros made the 66ers would answer back with a pair. In the first half alone the Toros were outscored 38-18 in the paint. By intermission Tulsa doubled their lead, 63-43. Cousin led all with 17 points (8-9).

Behind the efforts of Latavious Williams (16 pts, 11 rebs) and sixth man Tweety Carter (21 pts) the 66ers stretched their lead to 24 in the third quarter. Kevin Palmer’s layup with 2:29 sparked a Toros 10-0 run to end the quarter and cut the visiting team’s lead to single digits, 80-71.

A comeback of the season looked like it was going to occur with Jermaine Beal’s jumper that put the Toros within 7 at 84-77 with 9:07 left in regulation. Tulsa fought back and outscored the Toros in the fourth after capitalizing on their ability to score in the paint.

Other notables:

• Cole Aldrich was re-assigned to the 66ers today. Though his stat line doesn’t mention much (2 pts, 4 rebs) Aldrich was effective in being a nuisance to the Toros.
• The loss drops the Toros to .500 at home (3-3) and overall (7-7)
• In 3 of the 4 back-to-backs this season the result of the first game is the same as the second – the team travels west tomorrow to face the New Mexico Thunderbirds
• Six Toros players are averaging double figures (Cousin, Squeaky, Clinch, Thomas, Gardner, and Palmer) ranging from 13.5 to 12.4 ppg