Tulane became the first team to get to 2-0 in American Athletic Conference play after the Green Wave rid itself of a pesky losing streak by pulling away for a 74-66 victory against Memphis Saturday at FedExForum. Tulane had dropped 22 straight to the Tigers and had not scored a road win in the series since 1992.
G Jonathan Stark scored 24 points for Tulane, which improved to 11-3 overall. F Austin Nichols shouldered the load for Memphis with 28 points, nine rebounds and four blocks.
Cincinnati played its first conference game of the season and last year’s regular-season champion wasted little time in establishing itself at the top of The American standings with a 56-50 win against SMU at Fifth Third Arena. G Farad Cobb provided the offensive spark with 18 points off the bench, while the Bearcats forced 17 Mustang turnovers.
USF gave head coach Orlando Antigua his first American Athletic Conference win as the Bulls pulled away for a 58-50 decision against East Carolina at the Sun Dome. C Ruben Guerrero scored a team-high 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting as USF evened its conference mark at 1-1.
UConn played its first true road game of the season as the Huskies visited Florida in a rematch of last year’s Final Four semifinal. The Huskies trailed by 13 points in the second half, but rallied for a 63-59 win behind 14 points from G Ryan Boatright and 12 points off the bench from G Omar Calhoun.
Conference play continues Sunday with two games, both on ESPNews. Temple goes for its fifth straight win and looks for a 2-0 start in conference play as the Owls host UCF at the Liacouras Center. The three meetings last year produced two overtime games and another that was decided by two points as UCF took two of the matchups.
Tulsa plays its first conference home game as the Golden Hurricane welcomes Houston to the Reynolds Center. Three of the last five matchups between the teams were decided in overtime, while Tulsa leads the all-time series, 23-21.