AAC Tournament: Tulsa scraps to end but falls to No. 15 Cincinnati, 80-61

Hurricane awaits possible postseason invitation


by Tulsa World Sports Writer Kelly Hines
@kellyhinestw
/kellyhinestw

Posted: Friday March 10, 2017 9:30 pm

HARTFORD, Conn. — The University of Tulsa didn’t go down without a fight.

After delivering effort-lacking outings for most of the past month, the Golden Hurricane scrapped and clawed Friday night before likely ending its season with an 80-61 loss to a bigger, stronger and faster Cincinnati team in the American Athletic Conference quarterfinals.

“That’s something we have to build on,” coach Frank Haith said. “… I wanted us to continue to play hard today and continue to lay that foundation.”

Despite trailing by 21 points, three TU players dived onto the XL Center floor to fight for a loose ball with six minutes left and ultimately forced a shot-clock violation. The Hurricane bench celebrated as if the game were tied rather than out of reach.

“Give Tulsa some credit,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “They kept playing and made us keep playing until the end.”

Barring an extended and accepted invitation to the College Basketball Invitational or CollegeInsider.com Tournament, TU concluded the season with a 15-17 record, having dropped nine of its last 12 games.

Asked about the possibility of playing in the postseason, Haith said: “We can’t control those types of things right now, but we’re going to get back and see what happens. We would consider (accepting an invitation).”

As the No. 7 seed against the 15th-ranked and second-seeded Bearcats, the Hurricane fell behind by 20 points early in the second half on a 3-pointer by Jacob Evans and never got closer than 18 the rest of the way. The deficit reached 57-33 on a steal and fast-break dunk from Evans with 15 minutes left.

Cincinnati improved to 28-4 for its most wins in 15 years and advanced to play UConn, which defeated Houston Friday, in Saturday’s semifinals. The Bearcats kept TU at bay during a second half in which it shot 53.3 percent from the field.

“Cincinnati is a great team,” point guard Sterling Taplin said. “It’s a learning experience for us.”

Turnovers again were problematic, with the Hurricane totaling 10 in the first half and 14 in the game. It also surrendered 13 offensive rebounds that resulted in 19 second-chance points for the Bearcats, who coincidentally prevailed by 19 points.

“I thought we guarded their first shot sometimes very well,” Haith said. “But they kicked us on the boards, and you look at the point production out of that. … That’s been something that’s hurt us throughout the year.”

TU trailed by 15 after surrendering seven unanswered points before halftime. Cincinnati started 5 of 7 on 3-pointers and shot 50 percent beyond the arc in the first half to build double-digit separation, and the Bearcats received a combined 41 points from Evans and big man Kyle Washington.

Kelly Hines

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UC breezes past Tulsa in AAC tourney opener
Tom Groeschen , tgroeschen@enquirer.com Published 8:56 p.m. ET March 10, 2017 | Updated 5 hours ago


HARTFORD, Conn. – Postseason is here, and the No. 15-ranked University of Cincinnati basketball team showed here Friday night that it has every intention of continuing to win big.

It was not an electrifying atmosphere at the mostly empty XL Center, but UC played major-league ball in easily beating Tulsa 80-61 in the American Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinals. UC is seeded No. 2 and Tulsa was No. 7 in the AAC tournament.

Junior forward Kyle Washington scored 21 points and sophomore guard Jacob Evans had 20 points to lead UC. Senior point guard Troy Caupain had 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists. UC led as many as 24 points.

“We just want to keep on proving how good we are as a team,” Washington said. “We just want to keep winning. Postseason, regular season, but definitely we had an emphasis on the postseason for sure. We want to do well and make deep runs in all the tournaments we enter.”

The Bearcats (28-4) will play UConn (16-16) in the AAC semifinals Saturday at 5 p.m. (ESPN2). No. 6 seed UConn beat No. 3 seed Houston 74-65 in Friday's late game at the XL Center.

UC went 2-0 against UConn in the regular season, winning 82-68 at home and 67-47 on the road. UC also has been ousted from the AAC tournament by UConn in each of the league's three previous seasons.

The Bearcats have advanced to the AAC tournament semifinals for the first time since 2014. UC seeks its first league tournament title since 2004 (Conference USA).

The Bearcats are rolling. They beat Houston 65-47 and UConn 67-47 in their last two regular season games, then blitzed Tulsa on Friday.

The Bearcats did most everything well, from shooting (49 percent) to crashing the boards (35-27 rebounding edge) to defense (caused 14 turnovers, made only seven) to transition (11-0 edge in fast-break points).

The Bearcats held a 13-6 edge in offensive rebounding, which led to a 19-5 advantage in second-chance points.

“We’re trying to make sure, in the last month or so, that we still have the same mentality of getting three people to the glass, at least,” UC coach Mick Cronin said. “There’s multiple games I can tell you that we wouldn’t have won, if we didn’t have second-chance points.”

Get the latest UC sports news. Download the Bearcats app on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.

UC led 40-25 at halftime, and kept Tulsa from making any kind of comeback. Washington made sure of that, scoring 15 points after


“Our defense was excellent in the first half,” Cronin said. “In the second half, our offense carried us, especially Kyle Washington in the low post. He and Jacob both had very effective games.”

Tulsa (15-17) lost for the third time in three meetings against UC this season. Junior guard Corey Henderson led the Golden Hurricane with 15 points. Junior forward Junior Etou, Tulsa’s top scorer at 12.7 points per game, was held to eight points.

“Give Cincinnati a lot of credit,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said. “They are a really good team, and I'm excited to watch their run in the NCAA Tournament. I thought we played extremely hard in the first half, but we had some nerves and missed some shots around the basket and some threes.”

TURNING POINT: It was still a game late in the first half, with UC holding a 31-23 lead with 4:30 remaining until halftime.

The Bearcats closed the first half on a 9-2 run, putting them ahead 40-25 at the break. The nine points came via a Jarron Cumberland basket, a basket and two foul shots by Washington, then a 3-pointer by Kevin Johnson that made the score 40-25 with 35 seconds left in the first half.

Tulsa drew no closer than 14 points thereafter.

THE 8-10 MEN: Evans and Washington both shot 8-for-10 from the field. Evans entered as UC’s leading scorer at 13.4 points per game, with Washington next at 13.3 per game.

For Evans, it was his top scoring game since getting 21 against Xavier on Jan. 26 (86-78 win). For Washington, it was his top output since scoring a career-high 27 points against UConn on Feb. 4 (82-68 win).

“We’re competitors, and we want to win everything we’re in,” Evans said. “We also have three seniors that have never cut the nets down, and we just want to get one for them.”

The UC seniors are Caupain, Johnson (seven points Friday) and walk-on Zack Tobler. Tobler entered in the final minute Friday and scored one point.

Evans was 4-for-4 from the field after halftime, and Washington was 6-for-6.

“This may sound weird, but honestly, it was me not worrying about offense,” Washington said, smiling. “When I try to dominate positioning and just understand where I’m supposed to be at every time … I mean, coach (Cronin) will co-sign on this like he always does. He’ll tell me all the time, when I don’t worry about offense, that’s when I flourish.”

REPRESENT THE C: The UC rooting contingent consisted of 100-plus fans, including university president Dr. Neville Pinto and athletic director Mike Bohn. The UC pep band and cheerleaders also were on hand.

Attendance was not announced at the 15,564-seat facility, but most chairs were empty.

VICTORY MARCH: UC’s 28th season win is tied for the third-most n program history. The 2001-02 Bearcats (31-4) hold the record for most wins in one UC season. UC’s 28 wins are the most in Cronin’s 11-year tenure.

MOVING UP: Caupain finished with six assists to give him 505 lifetime, as he passed Eddie Lee (500 assists from 1977-80) for No. 2 in UC history. UC career leader Deonta Vaughn had 511 assists from 2007-10.

COME DANCING: The UC camp knows it will make the program’s seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, regardless of what happens this weekend. UC could land anywhere from a No. 3 to No. 5 seed on NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday, major bracketologists said Friday.

CBS Sports analyst Jerry Palm projects the Bearcats as a No. 4 NCAA seed, playing No. 13 seed Princeton in the West Regional in Milwaukee. Could UC rise to a No. 3 seed?

“Yes,” Palm said via text. “It depends on what they do, and others. Teams rarely control their own destiny for seeding.”

ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi projects UC as a No. 5 NCAA seed, playing No. 12 seed Vermont in the South Regional in Buffalo.

“They could maybe be a No. 4 with an AAC tournament (championship) win,” Lunardi said via email.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/c.../99034722/

It's funny how the papers from the two towns covering that game titled the articles so differently.

Yep. Tulsa scrapped to stay 20 points behind most of the second half.

We could use more charitable headlines like that once in awhile at Cincinnati.com

I thought Tulsa played well. UC is just better and played better.