DaQuan Jeffries and the rest of the Golden Hurricane were not going to let OSU steal this one. No matter what.

Jeffries scored 20 points, including key free throws and the only TU field goal in the final seven plus minutes, as Tulsa held on to defeat Oklahoma State 74-71 Wednesday night in front of 7,145 fans at the Reynolds Center.

Tulsa (6-3) led by as many as 12 points in the second half in front of delirious TU fans, including longtime fan favorites ‘Coach’ and ‘Mad Dog,’ that slightly outnumbered Cowboy fans. It was the second largest crowd both teams had played before this season.

The Golden Hurricane held a 61-50 advantage with under seven minutes remaining before the Cowboys started to whittle away at the lead.

From that point on, TU made only one field goal, but its 18 of 21 free throw shooting for the game (85.7 percent, all in the second half) to go along with aggressive defense allowed the Golden Hurricane to compensate and hold on in a nail-biter.

“Obviously a high-level game. I thought our guys, down the stretch, did a really great job hitting free throws,” said TU coach Frank Haith. “Give them (OSU) credit, they kept making big shots, but I was really proud of our guys how we competed.”

The one field goal Tulsa made in the final 7:05 was a huge one, as Jeffries got a pass from a driving Sterling Taplin with just a 63-61 lead and dunked it over Michael Weathers with 1:02 remaining while getting fouled. Jeffries made the ensuing free throw, and Tulsa led 66-61.

TU spent most of the second half trying to milk the clock. Ball movement stagnated as Tulsa dribbled the ball far from the basket on most possessions before driving the lane late in the shot clock.

After Jeffries' dunk, OSU still kept coming, as Thomas Dwiagwa hit a long-range three with 36.7 seconds left -- the first of three for OSU in a 33 second span that kept the Pokes’ hopes alive.

With just a two-point lead again Haith called a gutsy play, as Jeffries took a court long pass and was essentially tackled going in for a layup. He hit his two free throws there, hit two more with 20.5 seconds left, and Tulsa’s lead was 70-65.

But a three-pointer by Lindy Waters cut the lead back yet again to two points with 9.8 seconds remaining before Jeffries hit two more free throws -- his sixth in a row in less than 28 seconds, and Tulsa’s lead was back to four.

Of course, OSU hit another bomb, this time by Cameron McGriff, and Tulsa’s lead was just 72-71 with 3.4 seconds remaining. Martins Igbanu calmly nailed two more free throws for TU with 3.3 seconds left, and OSU’s last attempt by Waters was a short air ball at the buzzer, and Tulsa celebrated.

Tulsa scored only two field goals in the last 10 minutes.

Jeffries finished the game hitting eight of nine free throws, as well as six of eight from the field in a team-high 29 minutes.

“I was really calm,” Jeffries said of his clutch free throws. “I work on those every day, so it was not really a big deal to me.”

Laughter in the Tulsa press room broke out after that comment from the understated Jeffries, who had Haith, Lawson Korita and the press chuckling at the lack of emotion shown by the icy-nerved Jeffries.

Tulsa continued to narrow its rotation of players, as the Golden Hurricane played seven (Jeffries, Taplin, Igbanu, Lawson Korita, Jeriah Horne, Curran Scott and Elijah Joiner) between 25 to 29 minutes. Three others played a total of 10 minutes combined: Chris Barnes (5), Darien Jackson (4) and Simon Falokun (1).

Despite OSU hitting three treys in the last minute, it was Tulsa’s defense over a previously hot shooting OSU team (43.8 percent on threes coming into the game) that put Tulsa over the top. OSU finished a decent 11 of 29 from beyond the arc (37.9 percent), but that figure is skewed by OSU’s desperation threes in the last minute.

“That was the key to the game - our ability to guard the three-point line,” Haith said. “Changing defenses helped us there. We were very aware, and we had to be. There are certain guys they’ve got that are just stone cold shooters. I thought our guys were head-on-a-swivel in terms of our execution in our zone but also in our man-to-man.”

Tulsa started off the game terribly, especially after an early layup by Jeffries 14 seconds into the game. From that point on, TU didn’t score for the next 7:44 until a Horne three-pointer with Tulsa trailing 9-2.

Horne was the key in the first half, scoring 11 of his 16 points in the half, including four of six on three-pointers.

Tulsa was able to rebound a take a 30-29 lead into halftime, and then scored an amazing 22 points in the first 8:08 of the second half to extend the lead to 52-40.

“We were just moving it around, getting open,” said Korita, who had 13 points, seven rebounds and two steals. “We were running some good plays, back cuts, everything we could do to get open because they were heavily denying us, so back cuts were open, screening players, everything.”

In other words, finally made OSU pay for their aggressive defense where the Pokes overplay almost everything.

Jeffries gave Tulsa’s defense more credit than any offensive heroics.

“I thought the defensive intensity for us was pretty big in the second half, getting really good stops and stopping their shooters from making threes,” said Jeffries.

OSU coach Mike Boynton was obviously not happy with the outcome, but was very complimentary of the Golden Hurricane.

“Every time you don’t play well the other team has something to do with it,” Boynton said. “So Tulsa gets credit for making us not play well.”

Graduate transfer guard Mike Cunningham from USC Upstate led OSU with 14 points, while Dziagwa and Waters had 12 points apiece. Leading scorer McGriff scored nine points on three of four shooting in the second half on threes in only 20 minutes. Playing only four minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, McGriff came into the game averaging 15.9 points in 32.3 minutes.

Although Tulsa was outrebounded 39-32, it won the turnover battle 17-11. Amazingly, TU committed only two second half turnovers, and one was on an extremely questionable palming call on Taplin with 2:14 left in the game.

The victory over OSU was probably a big deal for Jeffries, who grew up in Edmond. But in his low-key manner, he didn’t play up the in-state angle at all.

“I think it’s a big win for us going into another Big 12 team this weekend,” said Jeffries of playing Kansas State this Saturday night. “It’s a lot of motivation for us.”