As of Monday, Tulsa was tied with Houston atop the standings of the American Athletic Conference after an exciting overtime against Connecticut.

Tulsa won 79-75 as Martin Igbanu hit a career-high 28 points – including seven in overtime. Tulsa is 6-1 in January and has won five games in a row.

We knew this was going to be a game that we had to play extremely well to win,” said Tulsa coach Frank Haith, “Our team did a great job of handling the adversity that comes with playing on the road.

Four TU players scored in double figures.  Tulsa reserves scored 46 of Tulsa’s 79 points. Igbanu and Darien Jackson led the bench attack combining for 42 points.

“We rebounded the ball well and did a good job in execution, particularly in overtime,” said Haith. “Our guys bowed their backs in overtime and did some nice things both offensively and defensively.”

Tulsa starts a two-game homestand, beginning with a  5 p.m. tipoff against Wichita State Saturday and then hosting Connecticut at 6 p.m. Feb. 6.

Earlier last week, Tulsa shocked then-No. 20 Memphis 80-40 in a home game January 22.

“There’s not an area of the game that I think we didn’t do well,” Haith said.

The win was Tulsa’s largest since a 56-point victory, 110-54, when the Hurricane defeated LSU Shreveport in the 2012.

The 40-point victory was also the largest win margin against a ranked opponent in the history of Tulsa basketball. The previous biggest win against a ranked foe came on Dec. 22, 1952, when the 15th-ranked Hurricane defeated No. 10 LSU by 26 points with a score of 84-58. It was Tulsa’s first win over a top-20 team since last year’s 47-46 victory over No. 16 Kansas State.