Mustangs win fourth overtime game

Sophomore Justin Isham has an incredible vertical. SMU needed every inch that he could get off of the floor in order to finish off Tulsa Saturday night in Oklahoma.

Isham tipped in a shot by sophomore center Eric Castro with only 1.2 seconds left in overtime. The tip gave SMU (9-8, 4-3 WAC) an 86-84 victory over Tulsa (11-5, 4-3 WAC), a team that had beaten the Mustangs three times in a row and 12 of the 13 meetings.

Tulsa trailed with under a minute left in the half, but was able to send the game into overtime. The extra session was nothing new for SMU. The Mustangs have played in three overtime games and have won each. Their 3-0 overtime mark was a school record until Saturday.

SMU scored 16 points in the extra stanza, the second-highest overtime scoring output in school history. The Mustangs scored 17 against Nevada on Jan. 18.

Senior guard Quinton Ross scored 25. Castro netted 19 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Ross and Castro were two of five Mustang scorers in double figures.

The win was SMU’s fourth in only five tries and gave the club a 2-0 mark on its stint on the road (including an 89-83 win over Rice on Jan. 23). SMU is over .500 for the first time since Nov. 29 (2-1). The Mustangs will begin a four-game homestand when UTEP visits on Thursday.