HOUSTON (AP) -- The Tulsa Golden Hurricane played stout defense, and Greg Harrington did the rest.

Harrington hit 21 points and led an early second half charge that helped Tulsa (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 19 AP) pull away from the Rice Owls for a 67-49 victory Sunday, their ninth in a row.

Tulsa held on in the first half in tiny Autry Court, where the Owls had won four of five games this season.

"This is a tough place to play, but we are using no excuses," Tulsa coach Bill Self said. "We missed some shots in the first half and we were still up by five so that tells me our defense played well."

Harrington hit 7-for-8 from the field and was a key to the Golden Hurricane's 19-6 run early in the second half that started after the Owls (4-9, 0-2 in WAC) tied it at 26-26 with 19:00 left in the game.

Harrington started the run with a 3-point play and Tony Heard and Harrington followed with 3-point baskets to put the Golden Hurricane (16-1, 2-0) in command.

"He is so efficient, not any wasted motion," Self said of Harrington. "He had a really good game. To come to this place and win it was the type of game that I expected, grind it out."

Harrington hit all five of his free throws for the game and was 2-for-3 on 3-pointers.

Tulsa has won nine straight games since its only loss to Oral Roberts, 60-59 on Dec. 11. Rice lost its fifth straight game.

Mike Wilks led the Owls with 17 points and Alex Bougaieff added 10. Eric Coley added 12 points for Tulsa and was the only other Golden Hurricane in double figures.

The Golden Hurricane survived a late first half run by the Owls to keep a 26-21 lead at intermission.

Trailing 16-8, the Owls used a 11-4 run to trail by only 20-19 with 2:39 to go in the period, but Tulsa's Harrington and Marcus Hill hit consecutive 3-point baskets to keep the Golden Hurricane in the lead.

"They (Rice) played a tough zone but they had a lot of open spots," Harrington said. "We came out a little slow but then we got used to the zone and started to figure out ways to score."

Rice pulled even at 26-26 early in the second half before Tulsa's charge.

"One of these nights, things are going to fall into place for us," Rice coach Willis Wilson said. "I was really disappointed for our guys. Our execution is getting better, and we're playing a lot better basketball."