A second half comeback fell short No. 17 Houston beat Tulsa 77-65 in Tulsa Sunday afternoon.

DaQuan Jeffries led the Golden Hurricane (12-9, 2-6) with 17 points and five assists, while Jeriah Horne came off the bench to score 15 points. Martins Igbanu and Sterling Taplin finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

TU had 15 assists on its 22 baskets and scored 20 fast-break points. The Hurricane also outscored the Cougars (20-1, 7-1) in the paint, 26-22.

“I’m obviously disappointed,” TU coach Frank Haith said. “We got off to a slow start and weren’t moving like we needed to be moving. In the second half, we were a lot better. When you’re trying to beat a really good team like Houston, you can’t leave any stones unturned.”

“I feel like that second half really showed some glimpses into the team we are capable of being,” Horne said. “I think now we have an opportunity at this point in the season where we have to continue to work hard and get it right.

“We are going to continue to keep working and figure this thing out because we aren’t going to give up.”

Armoni Brooks finished with a game-high 22 points to lead Houston, which shot 42.2-percent and scored 22 second-chance points. Fabian White Jr. had 14 points and Nate Hinton came off the bench to chip in with 13 points.

Sunday’s game also served as Tulsa’s annual Coaches vs. Cancer game. Coaching staffs from both teams wore sneakers to raise awareness for the fight against cancer.

Haith matched all donations made by fans at today’s game and that total came to $5,465.40 ($2,732.70 from fans) to be donated to the American Cancer Society.

Fans can still send a flat donation or pledge an amount per 3-pointer made by TU for the rest of the regular season at pledgeit.org/cvc19-tulsa.

Tulsa hosted Memphis Wednesday night and will play at Wichita State at 1 p.m. Saturday.