March 31, 2008

Tulsa and Bradley will play the first game of a best-of-three championship series in the College Basketball Invitational Monday night. Game time at Tulsa's Donald W. Reynolds Center is set for 7:03 pm.

Bradley (20-15, 9-9 MVC) comes into the championship series after a 96-85 road win at Virginia last Wednesday, while Tulsa (23-13, 8-8 C-USA) defeated Conference USA rival Houston 73-69 in the CBI semifinals. Bradley's two other wins came at home against Cincinnati and Ohio. Tulsa's first two CBI victories came against Miami-Ohio and Utah.

This will be the 100th meeting between the two schools, as the Braves lead the series 60-39. The two teams were long-time co-members of the Missouri Valley Conference, until Tulsa left the league after the 1995-96 season.

The two teams last met in the 1996 MVC Championship Game as the Hurricane captured a 60-46 victory after losing the two regular season match-ups against Bradley.

The Braves are led by its backcourt trio of 6'5" Jeremy Crouch and 6'5" Andrew Warren, and 5'10" point guard Daniel Ruffin. Crouch has a team-leading 15.9 scoring average, while Ruffin averages 14.3 points and 5.8 assists. Warren and another 6'5" swing, Theron Wilson, have averaged 13.2 and 11.6 points, respectively.

Tulsa sophomores Ben Uzoh and Jerome Jordan lead the Hurricane into the CBI championship series. Uzoh has averaged a team-leading 15.7 points, while the seven-footer Jordan leads the Hurricane with 7.6 rebounds and 3.6 blocks as well as scoring at a 10.3 clip. In the three CBI tournament games, Uzoh has averaged 20.0 points and 5.0 rebounds, while shooting 51-percent from the field. Jordan has tallied 12.0 points, 11.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots in CBI action.