Tulsa still hasn't found a way to win in conference play, which ruined a breakout performance by Matt Reed.
Reed had career highs of 13 points and 16 rebounds off the bench, and P.J. Haggerty had 25 points.
But missed free throws down the stretch doomed TU in a gut wrenching 94-87 loss to Tulane Sunday afternoon in front of an announced crowd of 2,907 fans at the Reynolds Center on a snow-bound day which limited fan attendance.
Tulsa (9-7, 0-4 AAC) had chances to put the game away in regulation in a highly competitive game against an explosive Tulane (11-5, 2-2) that was coming off a last second home loss to one of the best teams in the country, Florida Atlantic.
"Obviously, a heartbreaking loss for us," said second-year Tulsa coach Eric Konkol. "Very, very disappointed that we couldn't finish it. We played really good basketball for a long time."
The Golden Hurricane's second free throw by Haggerty that would have extended a TU lead to 79-76 was missed with 14.3 seconds left, which led to Tulane tying up the game at 78-78 with 8.3 seconds left by Kevin Cross, who led Tulane with 28 points.
Haggerty's long 3-point attempt missed at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime. Once in overtime, Tulane had the clear upper hand, and what resulted was an extremely disappointing loss.
For the 6-foot-10 Reed, he has been coming on in recent games in what is turning out to be a terrific true freshman season.
Haggerty, the 6-4 redshirt freshman transfer from TCU, had an outstanding game as usual, coming through with clutch basket after clutch basket throughout the game. Tulsa's leading scorer went to the free throw line a lot, as usual, making 11 of 14 free throws.
Tulsa's biggest negative of the game was from the line, making only 17 of 26 (65.4 percent).
Perhaps the biggest disappointment was letting Tulane back in the game after having a 59-45 lead after a Haggerty basket with 13:34 remaining. But Tulane went on a 19-3 run to take a 64-62 lead with 8:16 remaining.
From that point until near the end, Tulsa outplayed Tulane, but to no avail.
