SMU center Bamba Fall goes for a dunk against Tulsa Saturday evening in Moody Coliseum. (Casey Lee)

Ray Reese led all scorers with 24 points, including five 3-pointers, to lead Tulsa in a 74-64 win over SMU Saturday night at Moody Coliseum.

The Mustangs (8-19, 2-12) led by as much as 14 points in the first half before falling behind late in the game.

“I told the guys, ‘Life is not fair’,” said SMU head coach Matt Doherty. “They continue to invest emotionally and physically and we continue to come up short… To do it time and time and again it kind of rips your gut out a little bit.”

After trailing for the first eleven minutes of the game, SMU began knocking down shots to take control of the game. Robert Nyakundi sank a free throw to convert a four-point play to extend SMU’s lead to 32-22 with just under six minutes left in the half. Mustangs used a 20-9 run to close the first half and take a 38-29 lead into halftime.

However, the Golden Hurricane heated up midway through the second period, bringing the game to a 55-55 tie with 10 minutes left. Moments later, Justin Hurt made two free throws to give Tulsa a 57-55 lead, its first since leading 20-18 in the first half. During this run, Tulsa shot 4-of-5 from the 3-point arc and 50 percent from the field.

To make matters worse, SMU went cold late in the game after shooting 51.6 percent from the floor in the first half. The Mustangs made only one field goal in the last five minutes of the game. After going 5-of-11 from behind the arc in the first half, the Mustangs missed all 10 shots from 3-point range in the second half.

After going the entire first half without shooting any free throws, Tulsa made it to the line an astounding 26 times in the second half, and made 22 of those to catch up with SMU. However, the most telling stat of the game was Tulsa out rebounding SMU 44-29, with 21 offensive boards for the Golden Hurricane.

The Mustangs play their last home game on Wednesday night against Southern Miss at Moody Coliseum at 7 p.m.