The Cincinnati Bearcats traveled to the Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma to take on the tough Tulsa Golden Hurricane. The Bearcats were coming off their worse loss in the last couple of years and were looking to avenge it in a big way. The Bearcats came in at 7-8 and 5-5 in conference play. The Bearcats ran out a lineup of David DeJulius, Mika Adams-Woods, Keith Williams, Jeremiah Davenport and Chris Vogt. The big news from that is guard Mika Adams- Woods was back in the starting lineup. He has been coming off the bench the last couple of games, but his impressive play has earned him a spot back in the lineup. Would the Bearcats be able to bounce back and get back to .500 on the year?
Both teams got off to very slow starts as it was only a 3-0 game after 5 minutes. Tulsa finally got something going as UC struggled on defense and Tulsa claimed an early 13-3 lead off a 13-0 run. The Bearcats after that went on their own little 7-0 run to cut the lead 13-10. Then it was a back and forth effort from both teams as both teams got hot from the field and it was a 19-14 game with 9 minutes to go in the half. Then it was the Mason Madsen show as he got hot from behind the arc, as he made three of them and had a season-high nine points in the first half. Keith Williams sparked the comeback in the first half as he had 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting and really gave Cincinnati a much-needed boost from the field. The Bearcats fought back hard and took a 37-34 lead going into the half. The big play of Mason Madsen and Keith Williams sparked the bearcats big time especially after the tough loss over the weekend. Could the Bearcats hang on and steal a game on senior night?
The second half started with Tulsa getting a quick five points and taking a 1 point lead on the Bearcats. Then Jeremiah Davenport hit a big three and gave the Bearcats the momentum they needed to pull away. The Bearcats pulled away after a couple of baskets from Chris Vogt, Jeremiah Davenport, and Keith Williams and all of a sudden the Bearcats had a 7 point lead after a Keith Williams dunk. Then unfortunately the Bearcast had turnover issues and Tulsa got the lead back to 3. The Bearcats called a timeout and Davenport hit another three followed by a Mikey Saunders, Jr. three, Mika Adams-Woods tip-in and the Bearcats looked like they were running away with the game with 9 minutes to go. A 15-6 run by Tulsa tied the game late after an Elijah Joiner three and it was a 67-67 game with 2 minutes to go. A foul on Jeremiah Davenport sent Tulsa to the line where they made both free throws and Tulsa led 69-67. David DeJulius was fouled, but only made of 1 of 2 and all of a sudden Tulsa had the ball up by 1. After back to back possesions of turnovers and no baskets, Tulsa had the ball out of bounds with 17.9 to go and Mika Adams-Woods got a hand on the ball that ended up in Jeremiah Davenport’s hands where he laid it in on the layup and gave the Bearcats a 70-69 lead. Tulsa had one more chance, but couldn’t get a good shot off and the Bearcats held on to steal a win on the road on senior night.
Bearcats struggled from the field as they shot 41% from the field, but shot from well three where they have struggled this year. They shot 10-of-26 and didn’t turn over the ball a lot as well. The only problem was free throws as they struggled shooting 8-of-17 from the line. Keith Williams had 24 points with four rebounds and six assists. Jeremiah Davenport had a strong second half as he had 14 points on the game with seven rebounds. Mason Madsen had a strong first half shooting 3-of-4 from behind the arc. Madsen had nine points and a steal.
The Bearcats improved to 8-8 on the year and 6-5 in conference play jumping Tulsa in the standings and moving to 5th in the American. The Bearcats will have a quick turnaround as they come back home to take on Tulane at 4 pm on ESPN+ on Friday.
