Tulsa Comeback Falls Short Against the Mustangs

Wednesday, February 3

Reynolds Center

8:00 PM

Tulsa

SMU

Photo by: Bill Powell

Tulsa Comeback Falls Short Against the Mustangs

2/3/2021 11:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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TULSA, Okla. –– Tulsa's comeback fell just short as the SMU Mustangs used a strong second-half shooting effort to hold off the Golden Hurricane for a 65-63 road win Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.

Curtis Haywood paced the Hurricane scoring attack with a career-high 18 points, followed by Brandon Rachal with 15 and Elijah Joiner with 10 points. Haywood had his first double-digit scoring game since the fourth game of the season when he tallied 11 points against Wichita State.

"Obviously, it was a tough loss. We didn't play the way we needed to play at the start of this ballgame. We dug ourselves too big a hole. But we competed, got back in the game. We missed too many bunnies in the first half and in the second half, too. We missed a lot of layups. Our transition defense needed to be better in the first half," said Tulsa Head Coach Frank Haith.

Tulsa made a valiant come-from-behind attempt in the final 6 minutes after trailing by 17 points. The home team trimmed its deficit to the final two-point margin. Tulsa had two shot attempts in the final :07 and a chance at the line to tie the game on three free throws with :01.7 left but Austin Richie missed the first, made the second and a forced miss on the final attempt was grabbed by SMU to end the game.

"It didn't come down to those free throws in terms of why we lost the game. There were so many plays that we didn't make that I feel like were controllables. We've got to get better at those," said Haith.

Tulsa scored the first basket of the second half to cut SMU's 6-point halftime lead to 4 points, but that's as close as Tulsa would get until the final 0:30.

Thru the first 13 minutes of the second half, the Mustangs were shooting 70.6 percent from the field converting 12-of-17, including 5-of-7 three-pointers for 71.4 percent, while the Hurricane still was less than 40 percent from the field and 25-percent from behind the arc.

Leading by 4 points, 38-34, at the 12:14 mark the Mustangs went on a 22-9 run over a span of nearly six minutes to take that 17-point lead at 60-43 with 6:21 remaining in the contest.

Tulsa still kept battling and cut the SMU lead to 8 points, 64-56, on a Rachal 3-pointer with 2:00 left on the clock. After a steal, a Rachal dunk on a Darien Jackson assist cut the deficit to 6 points at 1:41.

An SMU free throw put the Mustangs ahead by 7 points, but a Haywood layup and Richie's two-point jumper just inside the arc made the score 65-62 to set up the final 0:30 of action.

SMU ended the game shooting 48 percent from the field and 38 percent from 3-point range, but in the second half the Mustang's percentages were 63.6 from the field and 71 percent from behind the arc.

Both teams scored their first points of the game on 3-pointers, the first coming from SMU's Kendric Davis and then Tulsa's Richie. SMU maintained a lead for the first 11:33 and led by as many as 9 points during that stretch at 18-9.

The Hurricane then went on a an 11-0 run to take its first lead of the game at 20-18 with 8:27 on the first-half clock when Joiner knocked down two free throws.

Then it was SMU's turn to go on a run as the Mustangs scored the next 11 points for a 29-20 lead at the 0:50 mark. It was a stretch of 7:54 in which the Hurricane failed to score and turned the ball over five times. Rachal's free throw with 0:33 on the clock ended Tulsa scoring drought.

Keyshawn Embery-Simpson's two-pointer from the left corner with :02 on the clock ended a Tulsa drought of 9:11 without scoring a field goal.

For the half, both teams shot under 40-percent from the field and 25-percent from 3-point range. Rachal led Tulsa with 7 points and 3 rebounds, while SMU's Davis led the Mustangs with 11 points.

Tulsa continues its home-stand for the month of February with a 5 pm tipoff this Saturday, Feb. 6, against the UCF Knights. Tulsa will then host Tulane next Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 4 p.m.