Two Tulsa Comebacks Fall Short
Last week, the Golden Hurricane played two games at the Reynolds Center. The first game was on Wednesday, Feb. 3 against the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Mustangs. The second game was on Saturday, Feb. 6 against the University of Central Florida (UCF) Bulls.
In the first game, SMU got ahead early, but twice in the first half TU tied the game only for the Mustangs to immediately regain the lead. In the second half, Tulsa had a strong comeback at the end of the game. With just under three and a half minutes remaining in the game, Tulsa trailed by twelve points. Rey Idowu made a jumper to bring the Golden Hurricane to within ten points with three minutes remaining. Following this Brandon Rachal made several shots and Tulsa came within six points. SMU scored a free throw and then Curtis Heywood II and Austin Richie made shots which brought Tulsa within three. With four seconds left, Austin Richie was fouled on a three-point shot attempt. He was only able to convert one of his three free throws which gave SMU a narrow 65-63 win over the Golden Hurricane. Despite Tulsa being unable to complete the comeback, Curtis Heywood II had a career high 18 points in the game followed by Brandon Rachal with 15 points and Elijah Joiner with 10 points. After the game, Tulsa coach Frank Haith said, “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.”