Tulsa collapses late in overtime loss to Cincinnati

It was a self-inflicted missed opportunity of sickening proportions against a team that was ripe to be put away.

Tulsa squandered a six-point lead with less than a minute and lost 70-65 in overtime to Cincinnati Thursday night in front of a crowd of 4,342 at the Reynolds Center.

Tulsa (11-5, 1-2 AAC) wasted a stellar three-point shooting night where it made an incredible 14 of 23 (60.9 percent) from behind the arc. Leading the way for the Golden Hurricane was DaQuan Jeffries with 14 points, including three of three on three-pointers.

Unfortunately for the Golden Hurricane, they missed key free throws down the stretch, making only two of five in the last 1:16, including the front end of a one-and-one by Jeffries with 40 seconds remaining in regulation with Tulsa leading by three points. Tulsa finished only three of seven in the second half on free throws (42.9 percent), 13 of 21 overall (61.9 percent).

“For 30 minutes we thought we were in control of the game against a team that is very good,” said Tulsa coach Frank Haith. "I thought our guys went toe-to-toe after getting down 10 early in the game and got control of the game. Obviously, we had some bad plays and bad turnovers, but we still had control of the game. If we make our free throws, we win the game.”

Jeriah Horne, who had a terrific game off the bench with 11 points and six rebounds, made the first of two free throws with 10.3 seconds remaining to extend Tulsa’s lead to 58-56, but couldn’t convert the second free throw.

Instead of Tulsa putting the game away like it should have, Cincinnati took advantage of Tulsa’s errors and also benefited from a bricklayer having his game of the season.

Cane Broom, about as bad a three-point shooter as there is for a guard in college basketball coming into the game (5 of 32, 15.6 percent), made two treys in the last 2:23, and made two field goals as well in the last minute. He led Cincy in scoring with 16 points after averaging 8.1 previously.

The stunner by Broom came with 1.2 seconds remaining on a long shot that was almost a three-pointer that tied the game at 58-58.

Cincinnati (13-3, 2-1), coming off a loss at East Carolina, then had a chance to win the game in regulation after a length-of-the-court pass went out of bounds, giving Cincy the ball under the basket with no time elapsed.

But Jeffries made a leaping interception off the inbounds pass, and then almost made a 70-footer at the buzzer, hitting the front rim with a long heave.

Jeffries started off hot in overtime, first giving Tulsa a 61-58 lead, then breaking a 61-61 tie on a jumper with 3:52 left in overtime. But then two calls went against Jeffries, and Tulsa was doomed.

The first call was a blocking foul on a drive by Jarron Cumberland with 2:37 left in overtime. His ensuing free throw gave the Bearcats a 64-63 lead. Then Jeffries drove to the basket and made a bucket. But instead of a two plus one, a charging foul was called.

So not only did Tulsa not get its two plus one, but Jeffries had fouled out at the 2:23 mark. With Jeffries out, another poor three-point shooter, Trevor Moore (6 of 27, 22.2 percent), hit a trey for the Bearcats, his third of the game, with 2:05 left, and at 67-63, Tulsa was through.

Against a physical Cincinnati team that had been outrebounding teams by seven per game, Tulsa showed tremendous hustle to outrebound the Bearcats 36-33.

“That was our emphasis for the game, rebounding,” said point guard Elijah Joiner, who had 11 points and five rebounds. “We knew they were a good rebounding team, and we hadn’t been doing a very good job of that, so we just wanted to outrebound them.”

But the Achilles heel for Tulsa was the 22 turnovers. Some were due to aggressive Cincinnati defense, but many were unforced.

Cincinnati’s defensive game plan was to take away the inside game of Martins Igbanu (13.3 average) and force Tulsa to make three-pointers. Double-teamed all game, Igbanu scored only five points, all in the first half, making one of three shots from the field. He simply couldn’t get his shots off with the swarming Cincy defense.

The Bearcats did a good job defending the inside game, forcing Tulsa to only five of 23 on two-pointers (21.7 percent).

It was the second game in a row that Tulsa had blown a sizeable lead at home in the last minute. The difference between the win over USF on Saturday night was that when South Florida tied the game, there was 4.4 seconds remaining, which allowed the Golden Hurricane to make a last second shot by Curran Scott.

The loss snapped a 15-game home winning streak for Tulsa.

After getting down 10 points at 21-11 with 13 minutes elapsed in the game, Tulsa controlled the game, outscoring Cincinnati 46-30 from that point until the final minute of regulation.

Tulsa plays at SMU at 5.p.m. Saturday night.