SMU’s Katie Cobb drives past Tulsa in Saturday afternoon’s 70-68 loss. (Lindsey Perkins)

The Golden Hurricane from Tulsa handed the SMU women’s basketball team its second conference loss this season in a 68-70 defeat on Saturday.

The Mustangs lost their first conference game of the season to Tulsa. SMU came out to prove they were a different team than the one that traveled, but were unable to keep the lead or finish the game.

“This was like déjà vu up in Tulsa,” said head coach Rhonda Rompola. “We led most of the game, and we had a breakdown at the end, and gave up the opportunity.”

The Mustangs came out strong in the first half, and established a permanent lead of the first half four minutes when sophomore guard Jillian Samuels hit her second three pointer of the night.

A combination of defensive rebounds from the Mustangs, and several missed jump shots from Tulsa increased SMU’s lead throughout the first half. Clinching a half-high nine-point lead with just over five minutes left, SMU went on to close the half 37-32.

SMU ended the first half with a lower shooting percentage than Tulsa, but made up for it with Samuels’ three three-pointers, and senior forward Katie Gross’ two threes.

Tulsa’s defense came out strong in the second half, keeping SMU’s offense focused more on guarding their strong posts than scoring. The Mustangs managed to keep their lead until Tulsa’s Chanel Johnson hit a layup to give her team a 43-42 advantage.

SMU gained the lead back with another three by Gross. Tulsa came back to tie the game with 10 minutes left with a three-pointer by Tatum Beer to lead to a cat-and-mouse game in the final minutes.

Helped by her teammates and coaches, Gross played with the confidence the coaches had been looking for in previous games. “My teammates believed in me tonight and they were giving me the ball, and it just went in tonight,” said Gross.

The score fluctuated back and forth until SMU gained what was thought to be the final lead that would secure a win. Up by five with 1:13 left, SMU surrendered a jumper to Tulsa to tie the game at 68-68.

When asked what went wrong at the end, Rompola explained, “We need to learn how to finish games, I felt like we had too many mental mistakes.”

Down by two with six seconds left, SMU called a timeout to get the ball back. However, a Tulsa rebound off a missed shot by sophomore forward Delisha Wills and a foul by sophomore forward Brittany Gilliam led to a final score of 70-68 in Tulsa’s favor.

Gross fell one three-pointer short of tying the school record for most threes in a game after sinking six of her eight three-point attempts. Gross also led her team with a team-high 20 points, and 70 percent success rate in field goals.

While Gross had her best game of the season, Tulsa put up a fight the Mustangs could not overcome. “We really struggle with giving teams second-chance points,” explained Gross. “We work on it every day: blocking out, rebounding and pushing them back. That’s something that’s a consistent struggle for us. Especially when they have big post players and athletic post players like Tulsa.”

Along with Gross’s point total, the Mustangs also had Samuels and senior post Janielle Dodds hit double-digit scores with Samuels adding 12 points, nine of which came from threes, and Dodds hitting 10. Saturday’s game also marked Samuels’ fifth consecutive game to hit at least three shots from the three-point range.

With the loss, SMU fell to 14-5 overall, and 4-2 in Conference USA. Tulsa improved to 8-11 overall, and 4-2 in the conference.

The Mustangs will play again on Jan. 31 when they host UTEP in Moody Coliseum at 7 pm.