Houston Cougars vs Tulsa Golden Hurricane Box Score on Dec 29, 2020

Brandon Rachal sank two free throws with 0.1 seconds remaining and the host Tulsa Golden Hurricane knocked off the fifth-ranked Houston Cougars 65-64 on Tuesday in an American Athletic Conference matchup.

Rachal paired a season-high 22 points with eight rebounds and finished 8 of 8 from the free-throw line as Tulsa (5-3, 2-1 AAC) defeated a top-5 team for the first time since defeating No. 5 UCLA on Nov. 20, 1996.

Caleb Mills sank a baseline jumper to give Houston (7-1, 2-1) the lead with 6.3 seconds left. But Rachal attacked the basket on the ensuing possession and drew a foul on Cougars center Brison Gresham, who fouled out on the play.

Rachal paced the Hurricane in points and rebounds and was the only Tulsa player to reach double figures in scoring. While Tulsa finished 18 of 22 at the line, Houston missed 11 of 31.

Quentin Grimes led Houston with 19 points and seven boards while Marcus Sasser chipped in 14 points and Mills had 11. The Cougars shot just 4 of 21 on 3-point attempts.

Tulsa led by as many as six points in the second half, but its offensive struggles allowed the Cougars to hang close. Houston went more than three minutes without a field goal until Sasser converted a second-chance basket that knotted the game at 62-62 with 50 seconds remaining.

Tulsa survived the first Houston salvo, an 8-0 rally that featured a DeJon Jarreau three-point play, as the Cougars took an early 15-4 lead.

The Hurricane answered with an 11-0 blitz ignited by a Rachal trey at the 13:10 mark of the first half and capped by the second of three first-half 3-pointers from Curtis Haywood II, who scored all nine of his points prior to the intermission.

But the Hurricane, who went 4:50 without a field goal during the Cougars' run to the lead, slumped again with a 4:14 drought that Haywood snapped with a 3-pointer at the 4:34 mark.

Emboldened, the Hurricane withstood the Cougars' stiff defense for the remainder of the half and finally took the lead at 27-26 with 1:59 remaining on a Darien Jackson 3-pointer.

Tulsa took a 31-30 lead into intermission when Elijah Joiner beat the buzzer with a layup that seemingly touched every part of the rim.

The Hurricane closed the half by converting three consecutive field goals while Houston, which missed 10 of 11 treys, went 1 of 7 down the stretch.

Tulsa never previously defeated a team ranked as high as No. 5 during a game at the Reynolds Center. The Golden Hurricane's best previous victory in the venue was a 77-67 decision over No. 9 Wichita State on Nov. 17, 2015.

--Field Level Media