Saturday, February 18
Cincinnati Ohio
11 a.m.
Tulsa
at
Cincinnati
Photo by: Bill Powell
Tulsa Faces #18/17 Cincinnati Today at 11 am CT
2/18/2017 4:44:00 PM | Men's Basketball
TULSA BASKETBALL
Tulsa Faces #18/17 Cincinnati Today at 11 am (CT)
| GAME #26 ... TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE (12-12, 6-6 AAC) vs. #18/17 CINCINNATI BEARCATS (23-3, 12-1 AAC) | |
|---|---|
| Date/Time: | Saturday • February 18, 2017 • 12:00 p.m. (ET)/11:00 a.m. (CT) |
| Site: | Fifth Third Arena (13,176) • Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Coaches: | Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 3rd year Cincinnati – Mick Cronin (Cincinnati '97), 11th year |
| TV: | ESPNU (Alex Faust and Mark Wise) |
| Radio: | Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo) |
| Live Stats: | Live Stats |
| Series: | Cincinnati leads series 24-11 |
| Twitter: | @TUMBasketball | @TulsaHurricane |
| Instagram: | TulsaMBasketball |
| Game Notes: | Tulsa I Cincinnati |
THE GAME . . .
• The Tulsa Golden Hurricane (12-13, 6-7 AAC) lost at UCF Tuesday night, while #18/17 Cincinnati claimed a 68-54 road win at USF on Wednesday.
• Cincinnati, ranked 14th nationally at the time, captured a 57-55 win over Tulsa earlier this month, on February 1.
THE SERIES . . .
• This is the 36th meeting between Tulsa and Cincinnati.
• The Bearcats lead the series 24-11 and have a 14-2 record in Cincinnati.
• Cincinnati has won the last five home games in the series, while Tulsa's last win in Cincinnati came in 1967 when the two teams were members of the Missouri Valley Conference.
• Cincinnati won the earlier meeting this season coming back from a double-digit deficit for a 57-55 victory in Tulsa.
TULSA IN THE AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE . . .
• Tulsa is in its third season as a member of the American Athletic Conference, after finishing its first year in second-place and placing in a tie for third-place a year ago.
• Tulsa has an overall 32-17 record in its third season of American play, which in the last three years is the third best league mark behind SMU (40-9) and Cincinnati (37-11).
• Tulsa had league records of 14-4 in 2014-15 and 12-6 in 2015-16.
• In the preseason coaches poll, Tulsa was picked to finish 9th in the league . . . this year, Tulsa has defeated teams picked above them –– UConn (2nd), Memphis (5th), Temple (6th) and UCF(8th).
GOING ON THE ROAD IN THE AAC . . .
• In its third year as a member of the American Athletic Conference, the Hurricane has posted a 13-11 record in league road games.
• Tulsa has a 2-4 road record this year, including wins at Temple (70-68) and USF (79-67), while losing its first two road games by three points each, including at Houston (64-61) and at East Carolina (69-66), then suffering double-digit losses at Memphis and UCF.
• The Hurricane posted a 7-2 road record in 2014-15 and a 4-5 mark in 2015-16.
• Tulsa has an 8.2 win margin in its 13 road victories in the league since the 2014-15 season.
IN THE FIRST MEETING, TULSA TOOK #14 CINCINNATI TO THE WIRE . . .
• Cincinnati's Troy Caupain knocked down a 10-foot jumper at the 0:04 mark to give the 14th-ranked Bearcats a 57-55 comeback victory over Tulsa Wednesday night.
• Tulsa was led by Jaleel Wheeler's 13 points, followed by 10 points each by Junior Etou and Martins Igbanu. TK Edogi added 8 points and had a career-high 13 boards in 17 minutes of play.
• Tulsa shot 40.5 percent from the field against the nation's second-ranked field goal defensive team, while holding Cincinnati to 35-percent shooting.
• The Hurricane held Cincinnati to 21.5 points below its season scoring average, and out-rebounded the Bearcats by 10 boards, 38-to-28.
• Sterling Taplin's layup with 6:01 left in the game put the Hurricane ahead by 11 points, 52-41.
• Tulsa led by 9 points after Etou's two free throws with 5:13 remaining on the game clock made the score 54-45, but an experienced Bearcats squad used a 12-1 run over the final 3:28 to grab the victory.
TOUGH STRETCH . . .
• Tulsa has dropped its last 5 games, including 4 against the top-4 teams in the league – SMU, Cincinnati, Houston and Memphis – and the fifth loss came at UCF.
• The five losses have come against teams that have compiled a combined 98-32 record for a .754 winning percentage.
• Among those five teams, UCF had the least amount of returning lettermen with 6, compared to 2 for Tulsa . . . alll but Memphis (2) had 3 returning starters . . . Tulsa returned one starter from last year.
• The 5-game losing streak is the longest for Tulsa since losing five games in the 2004-05 campaign.
• In this stretch, Tulsa is shooting just .355 from the field and .327 from 3-point range and is scoring just 53.8 points per game, but three of those opponents rank among the top-6 in the country for scoring defense – SMU (3rd, 58.0 ppg), UCF (5th, 60.9 ppg) and Cincinnati (6th, 61.2 ppg).
• Those three teams also rank among the top-7 for FG percentage defense – UCF (1st), Cincinnati (4th) and SMU (7th) – while Houston ranks 25th and Memphis 44th.
• In the 5-game stretch the opposition shoots .457 from the field, .405 from 3-point range and averages 68.6 points.
FRESHMAN IGBANU COMING ON . . .
• True freshman Martins Igbanu was inserted into the starting lineup six games ago, after starting four games earlier this season.
• In his last six starts, Igbanu averages 8.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game.
• Igbanu also has connected on .650 percent of his field goals over that stretch . . . he hit 75-percent of his 3-pointers vs. UCF (3-of-4) after coming into the game having attempted just one three-pointer on the year.
• He has had 3 double-digit scoring games in the 6 starts, including a season-high 15 points at UCF.
CHARITY STRIPE HAS BEEN KIND TO TULSA . . .
• After the first 3 games, Tulsa was shooting just 55.2-percent from the free throw line (37-of-67).
• In Tulsa's last 22 games, Tulsa is shooting 75.2-percent from the line (361-of-480), improving its season average from .552 to .752.
• Tulsa has hit 77.7 percent of its free throws (266-of-342) in the last 15 games.
• After the poor free throw shooting in the first three games, Tulsa went the next three games hitting 75.9 percent from the line (44-of-58), including 13-of-16 at ORU for a percentage of .813 in that third game.
• Tulsa connected on a season-best .909 from the line (20-of-22) at Houston.
• Tulsa has hit over 75-percent from the charity stripe in 13 games, including 8 of those games over 80-percent and twice 90+ percent.
Players Mentioned
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