UC men's basketball takes Tulane to overtime on road, but drops key AAC game

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — In their last regular season affair with Tulane, the University of Cincinnati men's basketball team tried to hold the Green Wave well below their American Athletic Conference scoring average of 81.4.

Though it looked like they might succeed early, they failed.

Tulane got the game to overtime, then used a late 7-0 run to pull away from the Bearcats at Devlin Fieldhouse for the 101-94 victory. It was Tulane's first game over the century mark this season. The Green Wave is now 16-7 (9-3 AAC) after outscoring the Bearcats 18-11 in the extra period.

Tulane junior Kevin Cross had 27 points and 15 rebounds, while sophomore Jalen Cook also added 27 points and junior Jaylen Forbes had 24. Both teams jawed at one another in the game's waning moments with UC's David DeJulius eventually being led off of the court.

The preview:Tough game in Big Easy against Tulane Tuesday for Cincinnati's Bearcats

UC led 37-28 at the break, then the potent Green Wave offense caught fire. Coach Ron Hunter's crew scored 55 points with UC playing short-handed.

Minus their third-leading scorer and top rebounder Viktor Lakhin for nearly 30 of the game's 40 minutes, the Bearcats seriously needed the next-man-in philosophy on this night. Lakhin suffered an ankle injury and returned to the bench but not the game. Later, reserve guard Rob Phinisee went down with 8:44 in the game and was carried off the court.

In place of Lakhin, UC got big minutes from bigs Ody Oguama and Kalu Ezikpe. Both had season-highs in points with Oguama recording his first double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Ezikpe had 9 points.

"Ody was terrific," Miller said. "He gave us 30 minutes. He just played his tail off and gave us great effort."

Both Oguama and Ezikpe had career-best nights as Bearcats in the defeat. Ezikpe was 3-for-5 from the field and Oguama was 6-for-10. Between them, they were 7-for-8 on free throws.

"It was definitely next man up after losing two guys that we value a lot," Ezikpe said. "Obviously we care for them and want to play for them."

Landers Nolley II paced UC with 26 points and 8 rebounds. Also in double figures were DeJulius with 12 points (8 assists) and Mika Adams-Woods with 11.

UC falls to 16-9 (7-5 AAC). It was only the third time all season they dropped a game when leading at halftime.

"We had chances to win on the road and didn't do it," Miller said. "It goes down to the guys have to step up. At times we did and at times we didn't. There were some really good moments (but) you lose the game in overtime it's not enough."

The Bearcats had a cold start trailing for the first 11 minutes until DeJulius hit a 3-pointer. Down 18-12 early, they would have an 11-0 run to lead 23-18 and would eventually extend their advantage to 13 points before running in at halftime with a 37-28 advantage.

UC had to dig deep off the bench as Lakhin left the game with 10:21 remaining in the first half. He had banked in a baby hook, then went to the ground as Tulane was bringing the ball up the court. Executive athletic trainer Bob Mangine and head basketball strength coach Michael Rehfeldt rushed out and helped him off the court as he put no weight on his right foot.

By the second half, he returned to the bench with a towel around his neck. He did have a small cast on his foot and crutches. Following the game, Lakhin limped to the team bus minus crutches, but Phinisee was in a total leg brace and on crutches.

"He hasn't had a full medical evaluation yet," Miller said of Lakhin. "I hope it's just a rolled ankle. Obviously, it's enough now he's not putting weight on it. Rob's injury is very serious."

Though Oguama and Ezikpe had their moments, Tulane was still able to outscore UC in the paint, 52-28 and outrebound them 46-39. The Bearcats fired up 48 treys on the night, connecting on 17.

Perhaps influenced by the Tulane football team, honored at halftime for coming from 15 down to win the Cotton Bowl over USC, the Tulane roundballers rallied. At one point Cook had scored 12 straight points and a Cross lay-in tied the game with 11:59 remaining at 52.

Cross would put Tulane back in the lead with under 11 minutes. From there, the lead changed hands several times. Cross had a putback disallowed on a shot clock violation at the end and DeJulius missed a triple at the buzzer to end the game in regulation at 83-83.

Tulane raced out for the first 6 points of the overtime, but UC tied on back-to-back threes from Adams-Woods and Jeremiah Davenport. The Bearcats went cold from there while the Green Wave went on their game-ending run. Tempers flared at the end as a winnable game was lost, along with at least one key player as Phinisee's injury appears season-ending.

"Toward the end, there were some emotions," Ezikpe said. "We just have to go look at the film and see what we can do better. We could have been a lot better."

Next season, UC moves on to the Big 12 with Tulane staying in the American Athletic Conference. The two could meet in the upcoming AAC in March in Fort Worth.

The Bearcats are back at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Fifth Third Arena against South Florida. USF is set to host Memphis Wednesday night.

Enter Sandman

Comedian Adam Sandler visited Fifth Third Arena Monday afternoon prior to his show at the Heritage Bank Center. The Happy Gilmore/Billy Madison/Waterboy star enjoys playing pick-up basketball and shot around, but the Bearcats had already departed for New Orleans.

Son of Don

Usually offers to athletes aren't always reported unless there's something significant to them. Monday, Jalen Wingfield, Class of 2026, received an offer from Wes Miller's Bearcats. He's the son of former Bearcat Dontonio Wingfield who averaged 16 points and 9 rebounds during the 1993-94 season on a team that also featured top freshmen Damon Flint, Darnell Burton and Jackson Julson. The elder Wingfield, now 48, turned heads with 30 points and 12 rebounds in his UC debut vs. Butler. He left after one season and was a second-round pick of the Seattle SuperSonics.

UC hires new broadcasting head

University of Cincinnati Director of Athletics John Cunningham announced the hiring of Trevor Towle on Tuesday. He will serve as the department’s Executive Producer for Broadcasting and Production.  The 20-year television production veteran has been at ESPN for the last nine years. He most recently was Senior Managing Producer of live events out of AAC and Big 12 school control rooms as part of ESPN partnerships. Towle was also part of the launch of the SEC Network and produced NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals.

CINCINNATI 37 46 11 94

TULANE 28 55 18 101

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: UC suffers injuries, overtime loss at Tulane Tuesday night