Although it was obvious UAB has a better team than Tulsa, the possibility of an upset was there.

But TU would have had to play a game with fewer mistakes. Too many missed free throws aren’t going to cut it.

Tulsa missed eight consecutive free throws early in the second that could have made a huge difference when the Golden Hurricane was surging.

As a result, UAB took advantage, and pulled ahead for a 78-68 win over Tulsa in a game that was closer than the final score indicated Wednesday night in front of an announced crowd of 2,687 (actual around 800) at the Reynolds Center.

“I thought our effort was where it needs to be,” said Tulsa coach Eric Konkol.

Tulsa (9-12, 3-5 AAC) played a lot better against UAB (13-8, 6-2) than it did the first time the two teams met in Birmingham on Jan. 4, which was an 83-51 debacle where the game was never competitive.

But this time, even though the end result wasn’t different, Tulsa played much better. TU outrebounded (42-40) a much more talented and athletic Blazers squad.

“To outrebound UAB and get more offensive rebounds than UAB, there are a lot of things that we look at and say, this is growth,” Konkol said.

“I think we’ve improved since the first time we played. Of course, we’ve added (Jared) Garcia and (Isaiah) Barnes (both were out injured). We didn’t have (Justin) Amadi tonight (due to illness). That first game we were playing four guards. You saw how big and physical and athletic they are.”

The difference in the game, clearly, was tall and athletic Yaxel Lendeborg, who was unstoppable. Averaging 16.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, he easily upped those totals. Tulsa had nobody who could match up with the senior.