Frank Lorenzo
Tulsa Golden Hurricanes at (22) SMU Mustangs (-8.5, 127 o/u)
The American Conference regular season title will be on the line tomorrow when the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (21-8, 14-3 American) travel to Dallas to face the No. 22 SMU Mustangs (23-6, 14-3 American) at Moody Coliseum (3:00 p.m. Eastern).
Though Tulsa and SMU have been the cream of the American all year, both teams are coming off losses.
Tulsa was downed by the Cincinnati Bearcats, 56-47, at home on Wednesday; the Hurricane had no answer for junior guard Farad Cobb, who scored 22 points in the game. The setback ended Tulsa’s four-game win streak.
On the other side, SMU was upset by the defending tourney champs from UConn, 81-73. Like Tulsa, SMU was lit up by strong guard play, as the Huskies’ Ryan Boatright and Rodney Purvis scored 23 and 28 points apiece.
“[W]e had a hard time guarding them, especially out on the perimeter,” SMU coach Larry Brown said after the loss. “Hamilton, Boatright and Purvis, they all kind of got the ball in spots they wanted to.”
Tomorrow’s game will be the second meeting of the season for Tulsa and SMU. The Mustangs earned a big road win back in early February, prevailing 68-57 on the strength of 23 points from Nic Moore.
The senior guard’s performance even left Tulsa head coach Frank Haith singing his praises. “Moore was just fabulous; he played like one of the best players in the country,” said Haith after the game.
The Mustangs have covered in the last two head-to-head with Tulsa, but haven’t been as lucky SU, losing six of the last ten.
SMU is currently an 8.5-point favorite for tomorrow’s game, and the over/under is at 122.
(Photo credit: John McStravick (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode]. Photo may appear cropped.)
