Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Home Teams Reign Supreme Wednesday Night

01.09.20

All three American Athletic Conference men's basketball home teams won league contests Wednesday night (Jan. 8).

Cincinnati 75, Tulsa 44 - Box Score

CINCINNATI (AP) -- Wednesday's game was what the Cumberland cousins had in mind when they got together at Cincinnati.

Jarron Cumberland scored a game-high 22 points, cousin Jaevin added 16 off the bench and the Bearcats limited the Tulsa Golden Hurricane to a season-low in scoring on the way to a 75-44 win in an American Athletic Conference game on Wednesday.

Jaevin Cumberland scored all but three of his points in the second half as the Bearcats pulled away. They led by as many as 36 late in the second half and scored 49 points after halftime - more than Tulsa scored in the game

''It felt nice,'' said Jaevin, a graduate transfer who joined his cousin after Jarron pondered trying for the NBA before deciding to return for his senior season. ''That's what we're capable of doing.''.

Chris Vogt finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds for Cincinnati (9-6, 2-1), which bounced back from a jarring loss on Saturday at Tulane to a Green Wave team picked in a preseason conference coaches' poll to finish last in conference.

Tre Scott added 10 points, six in the second half, including a thunderous dunk that had the crowd of 10,138 roaring.

''I was proud of our performance tonight,'' first-year coach John Brannen said. ''That's a really good Tulsa basketball team. I was impressed with them on film. For our guys, our comments this week and for today's shootaround were, 'Don't walk into the gym if you're not coming in with a sense of urgency.' For the first five minutes, we had tremendous urgency. Guys were flying around. We had a lot of deflections.''

Martins Igbanu scored nine points to lead Tulsa (9-6, 1-1), which has lost four of its last five games. The Golden Hurricane finished 0-for-17 on 3-point range.

''We kept them out of their rhythm early,'' Brannen said. ''Sometimes, if you get them out of their rhythm early, they're out of their rhythm for the entire game.''

Jarron Cumberland scored 10 in the first half to help Cincinnati take a 26-22 lead in the locker room. He finished the game one point short of matching his single-game season-high while dishing out a personal season-high seven assists.

''I felt good tonight just playing,'' Jarron Cumberland said. ''A lot of guys were open, and I found them.''

SMU 81, UCF 74 - Box Score

DALLAS (AP) -- Kendric Davis scored 22 points as SMU defeated UCF, 81-74, on Wednesday night to open American Athletic Conference play 2-0 for the fifth straight season.

Davis was 11-for-14 at the foul line and had seven assists. Feron Hunt added 20 points with seven rebounds for the Mustangs, who have won four in a row. Isiaha Mike had 11 points and three blocks for SMU (12-2, 2-0 American Athletic Conference), Ethan Chargois added 11 points and seven rebounds.

The Mustangs shot 13-of-24 - or half their shooting - from behind the arc.

Matt Milon and Collin Smith each scored 19 points for the Knights (9-6, 0-3), whose losing streak stretched to four games. Ceasar DeJesus also had 19 points with five assists.

UConn 67, Tulane 61 - Box Score

STORRS, Conn. (AP) -- Tyler Polley had 19 points and a career high 11 rebounds to lead UConn to a 67-61 win over Tulane Wednesday night, giving the Huskies their first conference win this season.

Christian Vital (14 points), Alterique Gilbert (11) and Josh Carlton (10), also reached double figures for the Huskies (10-5, 1-2 American), who snapped a two-game losing streak.

Connecticut dominated underneath, outrebounding Tulane 46-29 and scoring 19 second-chance points.

Teshaun Hightower had 17 points and K.J. Lawson added 16 for Tulane, which has lost four of its last five games.

UConn led by seven points at halftime and began the second half with a 10-4 run to give the Huskies their largest lead of the game at 46-33.

Tulane cut the deficit back to three with a run capped by a layup from Hightower, but the Green Wave never led in the second half.

An offensive rebound and three-point play from Polley with just under three minutes to play pushed the lead back to 63-54.

Polley, who was just a point shy of his career high in scoring, hit seven of his 15 shots from the floor and pulled down six offensive boards.

UConn came out pressing and scored the first five points of the game. Tulane responded with a 7-0 run.

Carlton, who was 2 of 10 from the floor in the Huskies first two conference games, hit his first four shots.

A long lob pass from A Gilbert to James Bouknight highlighted a 10-0 run that put the Huskies up 23-16 and a circus-shot driving layup from Gilbert sent the Huskies into halftime with a 36-29 lead.

Teshaun Hightower (12) and K.J. Lawson (10) had 22 of the Green Wave's first-half points.