The Cincinnati Bearcats ran out to a big lead in the first half and Tulsa was never able to recover in an 81-55 loss in front of 9,334 fans at Fifth Third Arena on Wednesday evening.
Tulsa falls to 5-16, 1-9 in The American, while Cincinnati improves to 15-9 and 6-4 in the conference.
Sam Griffin paced Tulsa with 15 points on the evening. Anthony Pritchard added 12 with three rebounds and a pair of assists. Bryant Selebangue had eight points and set a new season-mark with 15 rebounds, which was also the game-high. Jeremiah Davenport scored 20 to lead five Bearcats who finished in double figures.
The Bearcats took command of the game with a 16-0 run which turned a 14-13 Tulsa lead into a 29-14 deficit with 3:56 to play in the opening half. In that stretch, the Hurricane went 0-of-9 with three turnovers. From Griffin’s layup to give Tulsa the lead with 9:43 on the clock to the 2:35 mark, the Hurricane were held scoreless. A pair of free throws from Selebangue ended the scoring drought.
Tim Dalger ended Tulsa’s 0-12 stretch from the field with a put-back layup to make the score 33-18 with just over a minute to play in the half. After a quick timeout, Cincinnati connected on its fourth triple of the opening half to push the lead 36-18, which it would remain as teams headed to the locker rooms.
Tulsa held Cincinnati to 38.2 percent from the field in the opening half and an uncharacteristic 25 percent on triples. However, the Hurricane was ice cold in the opening half, shooting just 6-of-28 (21.4 percent) from the floor and missing all six of its 3-point attempts. Pritchard and Griffin paced Tulsa in the opening half with six points each. Selebangue had a pair of free throws and 10 boards.
The Bearcats pushed its lead to 20 at the beginning of the second half and the lead stayed within a bucket of that for the majority of the second frame. Tulsa did make one attempt to threaten. Selebangue got the lead to 17 with a layup and then on the next possession pulled down an offensive rebound and dished it out to Brandon Betson, who drilled the triple to make it score 64-50 with just under seven minutes remaining.
However, Cincinnati scored eight in a row over the ensuing three minutes to push the lead to 22 and effectively end any chance of a comeback. The Bearcats lead eventually reached a game-high 26 with a dunk with one minute remaining, which ended the scoring for the evening.
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