The Cincinnati Bearcats traveled down to to Tulsa, Oklahoma to face the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Cincinnati came into the game looking for their 17th victory of the season against lowly Tulsa. Would they be able to pull it off?
Cincinnati started slow allowing Tulsa to jump out to leads of 11 and 10 points throughout the first half. Allowing Tulsa to shoot 52% from the field during the first 20 minutes. Jeremiah Davenport got into early foul trouble with two, but came back in late in the half to make a few key plays to help the Bearcats out, finishing with eight points. David DeJulius did what he could to keep the Bearcats in the game with a team high 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field. Tulsa got a strong half from Jeriah Horne who led the game with 12 points. Cincinnati shot 38% in the first half and had seven turnovers it didn’t help the process in the first half, but they only found themselves down 5, 39-34.
Coming into the second half down 5, Horne started off the half with a bucket an and 1 for a quick five to get the lead up to 9 early. Davenport made a couple buckets to keep Cincinnati in striking distance, but so far cold shooting from Mika Adams-Woods is catching up to the ‘Cats as he is 2-of-10 from the field at the 13 minute mark. Mason Madsen makes back to back 3’s to cut the led to 6. Hayden Koval makes both free throws after being fouled on a lop attempt gets the lead down to 4. Adams-Woods gets an and 1 opportunity, but misses the free throw and cuts the lead to 2. The following play DeJulius fouls Darien Jackson for an and 1 attempt, but he missed the free throw to push the lead to 4 points. And after the Jackson play the Bearcats had a missed layup from Davenport and a 3 that was missed as well it was all she wrote. Tulsa upset Cincinnati, 83-77 earning their second win in the conference and delivering the Bearcats a terrible road loss.
Tulsa shot 52.5% from the field, they had four players in double digit scoring led by Horne and Jackson with 21 each, followed by Rey Iwodu with 14 and Anthony Pritchard with 11 (he also had 10 assists). Cincinnati was led by DeJulius who had his third 20 plus point outing in a row with a game high 23. Davenport had 15 points and nine rebounds and Adams-Woods had 10 points, but on 4-of-17 shooting from the field.
Cincinnati is now 16-8 overall and 6-5 in the AAC. They will face Memphis at Fifth Third Arena on Tuesday at 7 pm on ESPN+ will they be able to bounce back?
Wes Miller post game on next page
