Tulsa Travels to Cincinnati

GAME #16: TULSA (6-9, 0-4 AAC) at Cincinnati (13-5, 3-2 AAC)
Date/Time:	Thursday • Jan. 20, 2022 • 8:00 p.m. (CT)
Site:	Fifth Third Arena (13,176) • Cincinnati, Ohio
Coaches:	Tulsa – Frank Haith (Elon '88), 8th Season Cincinnati - Wes Miller (UNC '07) 1st Season
TV:	ESPNU \| John Schriffen (pxp) & Perry Clark (analyst)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM (Bruce Howard & J.R. Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	44th Meeting (Cincinnati Leads 30-13)
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Game Notes:	Tulsa (PDF) \| Cincinnati (PDF) \| The American (PDF)

TULSA, Okla. –– The University of Tulsa men's basketball team is back on the road for a late Thursday evening game against the Cincinnati Bearcats.

Tipoff is set for 8:00 p.m. (CT) on ESPNU. John Schriffen will provide the play-by-play, and Perry Clark will serve as the analyst for the matchup. Fans can also catch Bruce Howard and J.R. Rollo on Big Country 99.5 FM.

The Golden Hurricane (6-9, 0-4 The American) enters Thursday's game seeking its first conference win. Tulsa is on its first four-game conference losing streak since the 2017-18 season. TU would eventually right the ship and go on to finish 19-12 and 12-6 in the conference.

The Hurricane are coming off a heartbreaker of a loss against the No. 11 Houston Cougars on Saturday 66-64. For the fourth game in a row, Tulsa battled back from a double-digit deficit, and for the fourth consecutive game, the Hurricane fell just short.

Sam Griffin caught fire from 3-point range in the final minutes, knocking down three straight to finish with 10 points, cutting the lead to two, 66-64. Tulsa got the ball back with 6.6 seconds to play. Anthony Pritchard's contested layup just missed, but the ball went out off a Houston player, giving the Hurricane a chance with 0.4 left. A buzzer-beating attempt just missed, and the 11th-ranked Cougars narrowly avoided getting upset in the Reynolds Center for the second-straight season.

Jeriah Horne paced Tulsa with 24 points, his fourth time to reach the 20-point mark this season. He also had six rebounds, all on the defensive end, to lead the Hurricane. Griffin was only other Tulsa player to reach double figures.

Cincinnati (13-5, 3-2 The American) comes in having bounced back from a loss to Memphis with back-to-back wins against East Carolina and Wichita State. In its 61-57 win against the Shockers, the Bearcats shot 46.2 percent in the second half to bounce back from an eight-point second-half deficit. Cincinnati's defense held Wichita State to 31.3 in the deciding half.

David DeJulius had a game-high 18 points and John Newman III scored 10, extending his double-figure streak to four games. Hayden Koval came off the bench for a season-high 13 points.

Thursday marks the 44th meeting between the two programs, a series Cincinnati leads 30-13. The Bearcats won 14 of the first 15 meetings, but the series has been closer since then, with Tulsa trailing only 16-12. Cincinnati has won 10 of the 12 AAC matchups and are 18-3 in home games.

Last season, Tulsa won for the first time in Cincinnati since 1967, snapping an eight-game skid with a 70-66 win on Jan. 2, 2021. Rey Idowu came off the bench to score 16 points in the win. The Hurricane narrowly missed out on the season sweep, dropping the game at the Reynolds Center 70-69 on Feb. 24. A layup with 12 seconds remaining was enough to down the Hurricane.

Horne continues to lead the Hurricane in scoring, averaging 17.2 points per game to go alongside a team-leading 7.4 rebounds. Horne also leads the conference in rebounds and defensive rebounds (5.8), while ranking 131st and 84th in the nation respectively in the two categories.

Griffin is the other Hurricane in double figures, scoring 15.9 points per game. He and Horne have combined for 68 3-pointers and one of the two has led Tulsa in scoring in each game.

For Cincinnati, DeJulius and Davenport lead the way, both averaging 12.9 points per game. Davenport also pulls down a team-leading 2.7 rebounds per game. Mika Adams-Woods has dished out 64 assists this season and leads the nation in assists to turnover ratio (5.33), having only turned it over 12 times in 18 games.

After Thursday's game, the Golden Hurricane return home for a rematch with the Memphis Tigers on Sunday, Jan. 23. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. (CT) and the game will air live on ESPN.

Tulsa Travels to Cincinnati

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Players Mentioned

Sam Griffin

Jeriah Horne

Rey Idowu

Anthony Pritchard