For most of the night, any resemblance to the Legends Night Nolan Richardson TU team who wore those same uniforms 40 years ago was a figment of the imagination.

But even though Tulsa played terrible basketball over the first 33 minutes against SMU, the Golden Hurricane still only had to make free throws with 1.6 seconds remaining to pull off a massive miracle and send the game into overtime.

If Austin Richie hits three free throws after being fouled with 1.6 seconds left and Tulsa down three, Tulsa ties the game. But it wasn't to be.

Richie, who had made 7 of his 8 free throws for the year, missed the first free throw, made the second, and his intentional miss on the third wasn't rebounded by TU. The result was an extremely disappointing 65-63 loss Wednesday night to an SMU team Tulsa shouldn't lose to at home in the Reynolds Center.

Tulsa (9-7, 6-5 AAC) lost the first of six consecutive home games in what was supposed to kick off a run for TU to have a realistic shot at the conference championship. Instead, it was the fourth loss in six games for the Golden Hurricane after winning six straight games.

TU was down by as many as 17 points with just over six minutes remaining in a nightmarish performance. Tulsa finally woke up, but was still down by 10 points at 64-54 until Brandon Rachal's jumper that was originally signaled a three-pointer narrowed the lead to eight points with 1:59 left.

"We started doing things that a good basketball team needs to do in the last six minutes," said Tulsa coach Frank Haith. "We need to be doing those things all 40 minutes."

The way Tulsa played for most of the game was no way to honor the great 1981 NIT Champions of Paul Pressey and Company that wore those same style blue road uniforms with the Hurricane stripes that were the rage of Tulsa 40 years ago. It also didn't honor the 2001 TU team that won the 2001 NIT.

Tulsa was flat out awful until the end against a talented but less than stellar SMU (10-4, 6-4). No way else to put it. Lackluster defense. Anemic offense. It was a similar performance to the Hurricane's bad loss in Philadelphia against Temple on Jan. 26.

"We didn't play the way we needed to play at the start of the ball game," Haith said. "It dug us too big of a hole. But we competed and got back into the game. There were so many plays we didn't make that I feel like are controllables. It is frustrating. I told our team that. We're not running back hard enough on defense and getting in the gaps. They got some buckets early on defense because we're jogging back on defense.

"We are just not willing to pass the ball on offense at times. We have guys that are open and passing is a last resort. Those are things that are frustrating right now as a basketball coach that we're not doing right now."

Haith will play the guys who most want to win.

"We're going to work on it," Haith said. "We'll find guys who will do it."

The bright spot of the night was the play of Curtis Haywood, who had his best game as a Golden Hurricane. The Georgia Tech transfer scored 18 points (8 of 11 from the field) after coming into the game averaging 4.3 points. He added five rebounds and four steals in an overall stellar game.

"Curtis is very capable. He hasn't played well, consistently, on the offensive end, but he's very capable," Haith said. "So hopefully he can build on what his performance was today."

Brandon Rachal scored his average of 15 points, while adding five steals and five rebounds.

Richie finished with nine points, and his long jumper with 31.7 seconds left appeared to be a three-pointer that narrowed the SMU lead to 65-63. The scoreboard even said so. But a point was taken off the board while Haywood was driving to the basket with eight seconds left. Haywood's shot was blocked out of bounds while Haywood was being knocked hard to the floor by Yor Anei.

"We came down and didn't know it was a two. We thought it was a three," Haith said of Richie's shot which on replay did look like his foot was on the line. "I looked at the clock and the bucket was off the board. That obviously changes the game in terms of what you do. That was a little disappointing."

Tulsa had a chance to tie the game after Anei missed a one-and-one free throw with 30.9 seconds remaining. When Richie was fouled attempting a three-pointer with 1.6 seconds left, it appeared Tulsa might actually come back and win the game.

Perhaps typifying the night was the rough game for center Rey Idowu, who was coming off a career week where he averaged 18 points and 6 rebounds to make the AAC honor roll.

Idowu, the first player to wear TU legend and NBA standout Paul Pressey's number 25 since the Rubber Band Man played his last Golden Hurricane game in 1982, was held in check by the Mustangs. Idowu didn't score until Tulsa was down 12 points 31 minutes into the game.

But trying until the end, Idowu finished with three points and three rebounds in over 32 minutes of action. Averaging 9.2 points per game and shooting 57.7 percent from the field, Idowu was 1 of 9 from the field during the game.

SMU was led by Kendric Davis, who was a thorn in Tulsa's side with 22 points. Davis is SMU's leading scorer for the season at 14.8 per game.

"The only chance we have to beat teams like SMU in this league is we've got to play hard," said Haith. "We have to play with our identity of who we are. If we don't play that way, we don't give ourselves a chance."

TU hosts UCF on Saturday at 5 p.m.