Pat Swilling Jr. was the hero of the night as he drilled a 3-pointer, his sixth of the game, with 3.8 seconds left to give Tulsa a 48-47 victory against SMU Sunday night at the Moody Coliseum in Dallas.
It was the Conference USA openers for both teams.
All six three-pointers by Swilling, a junior guard from New Orleans, accounted for his team-leading 18 points. Senior Scottie Haralson also finished in double figures with 10 points.
It also gave coach Danny Manning a victory against his old college coach, Larry Brown, SMU’s coach who coached Manning as a player at Kansas.
The Golden Hurricane (9-6 overall, 1-0 in conference) owned a 34-17 advantage at halftime, but found itself down for the first time when SMU (10-6, 0-1) went up 42-40 with 5:22 left in the game.
The Hurricane never trailed by four points in late stretch and Swilling’s winning trey would eventually come.
TU shot 35 percent (19-of-55) in field goals, 29 percent (8-of-28) in 3-pointers and had only two shots at the free throw line, making both.
The Mustangs shot 34 percent (15-of-44) from the field, missed all of their 3-pointe attempts (0-of-13) and hit 85 percent (17-of-20) in free throws.
Jalen Jones led SMU with 15 points. Cannen Cunningham scored 12 and Nick Russell posted 10.
TU continues its road trip as it plays Tuesday at Marshall. The game against the Thundering Herd tips off at 6 p.m. (CST).
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