Wes Miller, UC Bearcats lose AAC opener to hot-shooting Tulane

Suffice it to say the Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball team capped a very rough 24-hour period for UC fans.

UC men's hoops stepped into the campus athletics spotlight Saturday night after Bearcats football lost Friday in a College Football Playoff semifinal game against No. 1 Alabama.

Weary Bearcats fans still licking their wounds from Friday's defeat didn't find consolation in the start of UC's American Athletic Conference schedule against the Tulane Green Wave, which dominated the first half in an eventual 68-60 win over UC Saturday at Fifth Third Arena.

The Green Wave (5-6, 2-0 AAC) shot the lights out in the first half and built a lead that topped out at 26 late in the first half. That, along with UC's various inefficiencies coming out of an 11-day break from games, proved to be too much to overcome.

"You get down 26… it’s gonna be pretty hard to win a Division I basketball game," UC head coach Wes Miller said afterward. "Really disappointed in our effort in the first half, and I mean that – effort. We didn’t play hard. We didn’t play with energy. I thought we had a great week of practice and maybe one of the best weeks of practice we’ve had since games started. Sometimes, it doesn’t carry over right away.

"We got to continue to have great weeks of practice, keep building and the only way to do it is work but it didn’t carry over to the first 20 minutes of the game. I’m disappointed, frustrated. I think our team feels the same way, and to be sitting here talking about a lack of effort is like, it’s unacceptable but that’s the truth of it."

By the 3:51 mark in the second half, UC fans had already started to head for the exits even though there was still some excitement left in the game.

UC (10-4, 0-1 AAC) came within seven points of tying the game three times during the closing minute but insurmountable damage had been done.

The Bearcats' 13-of-26 shooting from the free-throw line loomed large.

Tulane ended up dribbling out the final seconds of the game clock for what ended up being a comfortable win despite UC's late efforts.

"First half, you know, you guys saw it. We made mistakes," UC's Jeremiah Davenport said. "Couldn’t get back on defense. Second half, we picked it up with great energy. That’s what we’ve got to sustain for the whole 40 minutes from the first half, but we continue to work."

Tulane had three players in double-figure scoring and shot just under 50 percent from 3-point range in the contest (10-of-21) while the Bearcats' attack was top-heavy with only Davenport in double-figure range (19 points, 6-of-13 shooting).

The Bearcats' Mika Adams-Woods added nine points while David DeJulius was 3-of-12 from the field and didn't get to the free-throw line en route to his seven-point output.

UC started out the contest well, taking a 5-0 lead within 35 seconds of the opening tip but scored just 20 points the rest of the half. Meanwhile, Tulane got hot from the field and stayed hot.

By the 10-minute mark in the period, the Green Wave led 25-8.

It was 48-25 by the halftime buzzer, and Tulane had led by as much as 26 with 1:40 to go until the intermission.

Tulane was paced in the first half by guard Jalen Cook's 17 points (6-of-9 shooting) and Jaylen Forbes' 4-of-6 shooting for 11 points in the first half.

Part of the reason for Tulane's second-half regression was Cook went relatively cold the rest of the way in finishing with 20 points, but forward Kevin Cross managed consistent contributions in ending the game with 11 points.

Forbes finished with 13 points.

The Bearcats, led by Davenport's eight first-half points, shot about 28% from the field as Tulane was racing out to a dominant hold on the proceedings via 57% shooting.

Davenport would finish the night with a team-high 19 points, but that wasn't enough for the collective, which managed just 35% shooting.

Still, UC out-scored Tulane 35-20 in the second half, which prompted Miller to say: "Second half, I liked our team. I like coaching that team, and that team played with great effort."

The COVID-19 pandemic was a kind of backdrop to the night's matchup.

Tulane returned to play Wednesday with a win against shorthanded Memphis after missing three weeks worth of games due to internal pandemic-related issues.

For UC, which hadn't reported any recent pandemic-related problems through Saturday, it hadn't played since a Dec. 21 game against Tennessee Tech. The Bearcats were scheduled to play at nationally ranked Houston on Tuesday but the Cougars had COVID issues that forced the cancellation of the contest.

Davenport and Miller agreed the layoff from games wasn't to blame for UC's slow start in the first half.

"We went to work. Practice every day," Davenport. "We were prepared, definitely. We were prepared. Coaches had us prepared. Coach isn’t out there playing, we are, so, first half, like I said, came out slow. That’s what got us."

At the time of cancellation, the Houston game was considered a no-contest by the NCAA and, for the purpose of conference standings, Cincinnati was to be awarded a forfeit win and Houston was to be a forfeit loss.

But the conference changed the rule and the teams have the option to reschedule, although it is not mandatory.

For Miller, the game was his first in AAC action. The Bearcats are scheduled to next play Thursday against Southern Methodist at Fifth Third Arena (9 p.m.).

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Wes Miller, UC Bearcats lose AAC opener to Tulane Green Wave