An absolute disaster is best way to describe this game for Tulsa.

Against a mediocre UConn team, TU saw its best player, Brandon Rachal, get injured, which in itself is horrifying for Tulsa's prospects. Rachal had to be helped off the court.

Not playing well at the time, down three, Tulsa completely fell apart from that point, losing by an embarrassing 72-56 margin Thursday night in front of 4,640 bewildered fans at the Reynolds Center.

Martins Igbanu was the only positive thing about the game, scoring a career-high 29 points. He was 11-of-15 from the field and seven-of-eight on free throws.

Tulsa (15-7, 7-2 AAC) was behind 44-41 with 12:19 left in the second half when Rachal went down with a left ankle injury. He was going up for a defensive rebound when he landed wrong.

He was helped off the court at that point. While not returning, he finished the game sitting on the end of the bench after being checked out by the trainers. Both shoes were still on, and there was no ice pack.

"It was tough when Brandon went out because we weren't rebounding the ball, and Brandon had seven rebounds," said TU coach Frank Haith. "They kicked us on the glass, and losing Brandon really hurts. We were right there in the middle of the game when Brandon went down. We need some other guys to step up and make some plays. It definitely hurt us not having him out there on the court.

"He's got a tough ankle sprain. We'll see what happens."

UConn (12-10. 3-6), normally a poor shooting team, scorched the nets by making 10-of-22 (45.4 percent) on threes, and made 28-of-54 (51.9 percent) overall.

That was shocking considering Tulsa came into the game allowing only 22.8 percent on threes and 35.9 percent from the field in conference play. The Huskies were shooting 26.4 percent on threes and 37.4 percent from floor in conference games.

Tulsa's normally tough match-up zone was ineffective in the first half, allowing the Huskies to hit five-of-10 three-pointers in the half. When Tulsa tried man defense in the second half, it did not go well.

"I think when we went man they drove us, they were quicker than us, they got into the paint on us," Haith said. "That was the most glaring thing. We didn't have good rotation in our man defense."

Rachal, along with Darien Jackson, is one Tulsa's two top defenders, as well as TU's leading scorer. He had eight points, all in the first half, and had seven rebounds when he left the game.

Tulsa had come back from a 42-31 deficit to score 10 consecutive points and cut the lead to one at 42-41. A minute later, Rachal was writhing in pain, as were the TU fans in a different way.

The Golden Hurricane got destroyed on the boards 37-22, and was generally outplayed in most areas.

Three-point shooting was horrible as well. TU was one-of-12 on threes and didn't make a three until Elijah Joiner hit one with 8:28 remaining to cut the margin to 57-50.

"We had some good looks," Haith said. "Obviously, we just didn't make any shots."

Compounding the Huskies' hot shooting was a lack of fire on defense for TU. UConn was able to make squared up three-point attempts, and when it got hot, Tulsa didn't deny the shots and let the Huskies go into a feeding frenzy from beyond the arc.

Freshman James Bouknight, a 6-foot-4 guard who came into the game two-of-15 (13.3 percent) on threes in conference and averaging 12.1 points, made four-of-five three-pointers and finished with a team-high 22 points. Alterique Gilbert hit all three of his three-point attempts and scored 17 points. He averages 8.4 points per game.

The tone for the game was set in the first half by whistle happy refs who didn't see a traveling or foul call they didn't like. That negated Tulsa's advantage early in the game where it led most of the first half. TU went into a lull after leading by as many as six points late in the first half and trailed 31-29 at half.

Jeriah Horne picked up his third foul in the first half and played only eight minutes in the half, while Jackson had two fouls and played only five minutes of the first 20.

Jackson, Tulsa's energy source and defensive dynamo, was especially missed, as Tulsa led 15-10 at the 11:37 mark in the half when he left with two ticky-tack fouls.

When Tulsa could have been extending the lead and burying UConn, the Huskies were kept in the game. Bad things happen when letting a struggling team hang around.

"Darien had two fouls, Jeriah had two fouls. We played the first half without two very key guys," Haith said. "Then Jeriah gets his third. We were up at that time. We need all of our guys.

"It was a three-point game when Brandon goes down. Three-point game. Not making excuses, but we need those guys on the floor."

A total of three technical fouls were called in the game, including a double-technical in the second half on Isaiah Hill and Bouknight. A late first half tech was called on the Huskies.

The minus 15 rebounding margin was a puzzler considering UConn is a weak inside team, and gets out-rebounded 38.6 to 37.3 in conference games. Tulsa's rebound margin is 35.1 to 34.9 in conference.

Quite frankly, Tulsa was frequently not blocking out on rebounds. TU was getting outhustled for loose balls.

Igbanu, who was the AAC Player of the Week for his 28-point performance 11 days ago in TU's 79-75 overtime road win at UConn, was nearly unstoppable inside again.

While UConn's big men are usually not a factor, Tulsa let Isaiah Whaley have a banner game. Averaging 5.4 points and 4.8 rebounds, the 6-8 junior had 10 points and 12 boards.

Tulsa's defensive woes were especially disappointing considering UConn didn't pass the ball well, having only seven assists compared with 17 turnovers.

"It's very disappointing, the way we played and the way we came out, especially for a team that's being playing really well," Igbanu said. "You definitely fix it by picking each other up."

Tulsa will need to fix it quickly, playing at UCF (12-10, 3-7) at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

"You can't let one loss turn into two losses," Haith said.