Tulsa moved back into a tie atop the conference standings with an overtime win, while Cincinnati and East Carolina and Cincinnati also won Saturday in The American.
Tulsa trailed by as much as nine in the second half before coming back to force overtime and win 74-72 at Memphis. G Shaquille Harrison had 23 points and nine rebounds - including all eight for Tulsa in overtime - to lead the Golden Hurricane, which moved back into a first-place tie with SMU at 14-2 in The American, while improving to 21-7 overall. F Shaq Goodwin had a team-high 17 points for the Tigers, who dropped to 17-12 and 9-7 in The American.
F Octavius Ellis notched 14 points and 10 rebounds to help Cincinnati to its 20
th win of the year, a 63-47 victory at Tulane. G Kevin Johnson had a team-high 15 points in 21 minutes off the bench for the Bearcats, who improved to 20-9 and 11-5 in The American. G Louis Dabney scored a game-high 18 for the Green Wave.
East Carolina scored eight of the game’s final 10 points in a 71-66 win at UCF. G Caleb White had a team-high 14 points for the Pirates, who took the lead for good on G Terry Whisnant’s lone 3-pointer of the contest with just over a minute remaining. G Adonys Henriquez had 14 points to lead the Knights.
There are two games on the Sunday schedule, with the first contest of the day bringing SMU to Hartford for the first of two trips this month.
SMU will play UConn (2 p.m., CBS) at XL Center, 12 days prior to the Mustangs’ first game in the 2015 American Athletic Conference Championship at the same venue in Connecticut’s capital city. The Huskies are looking for a split of the season-series, and more importantly, to move a full game up on Memphis for the fifth and final first-round bye in a week and a half.
Houston hosts USF (3 p.m., ESPN3) in a rematch of a battle that took place in Tampa less than two weeks ago. In that game, the Bulls held off the Cougars and a career-high 25 points from G L.J. Rose for a 69-67 victory at the Sun Dome.