This week, the Golden Hurricane dropped a pair of conference games: the first game was a home loss to UConn, and the second was a road loss at UCF.
Tulsa faced a tall task when No. 1 ranked UConn visited the Reynolds Center. The Huskies are undefeated with a win streak of 56 games over the last few seasons, and the Golden Hurricane could do little to attempt to change that. After just one quarter, the game was out of hand, and Tulsa managed to score only three points, facing a 27–3 deficit. The game didn’t get any better from there, and ended up in a 94–30 defeat for Tulsa.
In their next game, Tulsa travelled to face UCF, the team second from the bottom of the American Athletic Conference standings. The game was very tightly contested from start to finish. UCF took the lead in the first quarter, and held it by a small margin for the remainder of the first half.
In the third quarter, Tulsa started to let the game slip, as UCF was able to pull out to a ten point lead midway through the quarter. In the fourth quarter, though, the Golden Hurricane pressured the Knights, looking for the comeback victory. Tulsa managed to pull ahead with just 17 seconds remaining in the game, but Zykira Lewis drained a three-pointer with four seconds remaining, giving the Knights the one point victory, 75–74.
The Golden Hurricane have now lost three straight, and sit at 7–15 (4–7 AAC). That mark is good for seventh in the conference. Next, they play a road game at East Carolina on February 3 before returning home for a pair of home games.
