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"These kids have earned that."

One of those players was Dago Pena, who got his third start of his career for Shaquille Johnson, but scored only three points and played only 17 minutes.

“We’re disappointed,”  Pena said. “We know we controlled our destiny. It was painful, man. We knew we had this game. It was in our hands."

TU senior Ben Uzoh added 18 points while Justin Hurtt 15 for the Golden Hurricane. But the key was scoring off the bench, which Tulsa got almost none in the first round win over Rice.

6-foot-10 Steven Idlet, shutout by the Owls on Wednesday, responded with ten points, seven rebounds, a block and a steal for TU against the Herd.

Freshman guard Donte Medder had 11 points, including two three-pointers in the decisive Tulsa run. His play prevented Chris Lutz, who was guarding Medder, from helping inside like he did in the Marshall win over Tulsa in Huntington.

“They played extremely well,” Jones said. “They played at a different level than us in the second half.”

For the Herd, Hassan Whiteside had 14 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks for Marshall in the loss to Tulsa. It was his league-leading 14th double-double.

Senior Tyler Wilkerson scored 16 points against the Hurricane, and grabbed eight rebounds, but played only 28 minutes with foul trouble.

When Wilkerson picked up his third foul and went to the bench, the Herd was up eight. When he reinterred the game five minutes later, the Herd was down three.

He quickly picked up his fourth and Tulsa pulled away from the Herd by going inside to Jordan, who was guarded one-on-one by Whiteside.

With no help, Jordan scored ten points down the stretch to seal the win.

"Things started going our way," Tulsa Coach Doug Wojcik said.

Tulsa trailed by nine early in the second half and 58-53 when Jordan scored on a slam to spark a 16-0 run. He had another slam moments later to tie the game at 58, then hit two jump hooks over Whiteside to make it 66-58.

"We got frustrated," Jones said. "We led the league in assists because we always play together. We had to play one-on-one a lot more in this game than you want to.

"We are not a great one-on-one team; that's not who we are. When things didn't go well for us, we struggled."

Wojcik was glad his team was able to escape the game with a win.

"Boy, it's a great win for us," Wojcik said. "That first half they just kept answering each one of our runs. I thought (my players) showed great toughness and resiliency."

Post Game Notes, Thursday, March 11, 2010

(5) Tulsa 80, (4) Marshall 64, C-USA Tournament Quarterfinals

*Tulsa improved to 11-4 overall in the Conference USA Championship.

*Marshall fell to a 1-5 all-time record in the C-USA Tournament.

*Tulsa leads the all-time series 7-3 with the Herd and is 6-0 in Tulsa against Marshall.

*The contest featured 10 ties and six lead changes.

Marshall Notes

*Marshall’s overall record fell to 23-9 on the season and 1-5 all-time in C-USA Tournament action. Donnie Jones is yet to win a game in the tournament as the MU head coach in three seasons.

*Senior Tyler Wilkerson tossed in 16 points and eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career. He now has 1,011 for his career, making him the 45th Marshall player to top 1,000 points - tied for tenth best in NCAA Division I history.

*Wilkerson joins Mark Patton (2002-06) as the only MU players with over 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 100 blocks.

*MU senior Darryl Merthie appeared in his 124th game at Marshall and is one game from tying the all-time record of 125 games set by Skip Henderson (1984-88).

*Freshman center Hassan Whiteside had a game-high six blocks and now has 174 on the season. He currently sits in seventh place on the NCAA Division I list for blocks in a season. His six blocked shots also ties for the third most in tournament history.

*Whiteside pulled down 10 rebounds and tossed in 14 points to record his 15th double-double on the season, which ties him for the most in conference play with Elijah Millsap of UAB. *Marshall held a 25-16 advantage in points off the bench.

*The Thundering Herd only registered five assists on the night which ties for the 10th lowest in a C-USA Tournament game. The Herd was the league leader in assists with 16.4 per game.

Tulsa Notes

*Tulsa is now 23-10 on the season and will play No. 1 UTEP (a 76-54 winner over UCF) tomorrow in a game that will be aired on CBS College Sports at 4 p.m. eastern.

*The UTEP-UCF game was the only non-upset game in the quarterfinals. No. 7 Houston beat No. 2 Memphis, No. 6 Southern Miss beat No. 3 UAB and No. 5 Tulsa beat No. 4 Marshall..

*TU senior Ben Uzoh has played in 139 games for Tulsa, which is tied for the second most in TU history. Greg Harrington (1998-02) has the most in Golden Hurricane history with 141.

*Jerome Jordan tied his season-high in field goals made with eight to go along with his game-high 21 points.

*Jordan pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds and tossed in 21 points for his 11th double-double of the season and 29th of his career.

*The Golden Hurricane outscored the Thundering Herd, 47-26, in the second half.

*As a team, TU had 17 assists compared to Marshall’s five.

*Tulsa shot 50 percent from the field on 29-of-58 shooting.