Cincinnati moved to 5-0 on the season with a 20-point win over No. 14/15 Illinois in American Athletic Conference men's basketball action on Monday, Nov. 22.

Monday. November 22
Tulane 90, Drexel 87 (OT) - Box Score
No. 12/11 Houston 70, Butler 52 - Box Score
Cincinnati 71, No. 14/15 Illinois 51 - Box Score
Loyola Marymount 76, SMU 70 - Box Score

Tulane 90, Drexel 87 (OT) - Box Score
NASSAU, Bahamas -- — Jaylen Forbes scored 30 points and Sion James made a layup with 3:42 left in overtime to give Tulane a lead they would not relinquish en route to a 90-87 win over Drexel on Monday night.

The Green Wave's Kevin Cross converted a three-point play to tie it at 77 with 11 seconds left in regulation.

Forbes made 6 of 8 3-pointers and shot 8 for 10 from the foul line, and Cross finished with 21 points for Tulane (2-2). Jalen Cook added 19 points and James had 13 points.

Melik Martin scored a career-high 27 points for the Dragons (2-2). Xavier Bell scored 20 points and James Butler had 14 points.

No. 12/11 Houston 70, Butler 52 - Box Score
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Houston did not give Butler an inch in a dominating defensive first half, looking every bit like a team ready to make another deep NCAA Tournament run.

Playing with a big lead, the Cougars backed off a bit and needed time to rev it up again.

A lopsided win, just not as complete as it could have been.

Fabian White Jr. scored 21 points and No. 12 Houston rode a dominating first half to a 70-52 win over Butler Monday in the opening round of the Maui Invitational.

“We’re a good defensive team but the challenge is doing it for 40 minutes,” coach Kelvin Sampson said. “I felt we let go of the rope a little bit in the second half.”

The Cougars (4-0) overwhelmed Butler early, scoring the game’s first 17 points while building a 21-point halftime lead. They weren’t quite as locked in at either end of the floor to start the second half, allowing the Bulldogs (3-2) to creep back in it before pulling away down the stretch.

Next up for Houston is a spot in Tuesday’s semifinals against Wisconsin.

“We won today, but we don’t really gloat on it and stay on it,” said Houston’s Jamal Shead, who had eight points. “Just try to move on and get to the next stage, the next round, and focus on Wisconsin.”

Butler had some good moments to start the second half. The rest of it was a bit shaky, thanks to Houston’s defense.

Bryce Bolden had 16 points for Butler, which had 20 turnovers that led to 27 Houston points.

“I thought we showed some good fight in the second half that little stretch there, probably eight to 10 minutes where it looked like Butler basketball on both ends of the court,” coach Lavall Jordan said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to get that from the beginning.”

Houston lost four key players from last year’s Final Four team, including third-team Associated Press All-America guard Quentin Grimes.

Sampson filled the holes with quality transfers to play alongside a solid returning core. The new-look Cougars have shown they can still D it up: They forced 17 turnovers and held Virginia to 47 points in a 20-point win last week.

They made life even more difficult on Butler.

Houston was locked in defensively from the opening tip, with quick hands filling passing lanes and nimble feet rotating bodies in front of Butler ballhandlers.

The Bulldogs had a hard time getting around or shooting over the long-armed Cougars, repeatedly hoisting up contested shots as the shot clock ticked down. Butler needed 6:21 to hit its first basket and trailed 41-20 at halftime.

“Coming out of the gates, obviously the physicality on the defensive end, that set a tone for the game and had us on our heels,” Jordan said.

Butler threw a stick into the spokes of Houston’s well-oiled machine to start the half, flummoxing the Cougars with a more aggressive defense.

The Bulldogs held Houston without a field goal for 5 1/2 minutes, trimming the lead 44-32, but couldn’t sustain it. Houston stretched the lead back to 24 and cruised into the semifinals from there.

Cincinnati 71, No. 14/15 Illinois 51 - Box Score
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cincinnati coach Wes Miller had no idea who he was watching early on against Illinois on Monday night.

Not because he’s in his first year with the Bearcats, either.

“We weren’t playing our defensive principles. We weren’t alert. We weren’t executing offensively,” Miller said.

It took two media timeouts for the Bearcats to rediscover themselves. And when they did, they mounted a big first-half charge to take a stunning halftime lead, then steadily pulled away from the No. 14 Illini for a 71-51 victory that pushed them into the championship game of the Hall of Fame Classic.

“Sometimes you’re going to get your butt kicked, that’s part of college basketball,” Miller said. “I don’t like it but that’s part of it, and if we were going to get our butt kicked, let’s get it kicked our way. And I thought our guys really adjusted and we started to play the way we had the first four games of the year.”

Mike Saunders Jr. scored 20 points and Jeremiah Davenport added 19 to lead the Bearcats (5-0), who went 17 of 20 from the foul line and won the battle of the boards against the bigger Illini (2-2) inside T-Mobile Center.

That earned the right to play the winner of No. 13 Arkansas and Kansas State for the tournament title.

“This shows what we can do,” Davenport said. “As a whole group, we just have to go out every night and just execute what we can do at the highest level. You guys saw it tonight.”

Kofi Cockburn, who was suspended the first three games of the season for violating NCAA rules, had 18 points and seven rebounds for the Fighting Illini (2-2). Andre Curbelo added 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting with five turnovers.

“We got off to a good start but give Cincinnati a ton of credit. They played harder than we did, which is very unacceptable for me to stomach,” Illini coach Brad Underwood said. “They were the more physical team. And I give them a lot of credit.”

Indeed, the Illini looked as if they were going to blow out the Bearcats in the first 10 minutes.

Cockburn had a big part in it.

The 7-foot, 275-pound center from Jamaica bullied his way to six straight points to open the game, and the Illini raced to a 19-4 lead before the Bearcats seemed to realize the game had tipped off. At one point, Cockburn had outscored Cincinnati 12-8 as the Illini built a 23-8 advantage nearing the midpoint of the first half.

That’s when Miller made a couple of subtle adjustments that got them on track.

They slowed Cockburn with physical double-teams in the post, and they began jumping the passing lanes, and at one point the Bearcats held Illinois without a field goal for nearly seven minutes. They pieced together a 14-1 run of their own during the stretch, and David DeJulius made a couple foul shots just before halftime to give Cincinnati a 34-31 lead.

The Illini’s slump endured well into the second half.

Davenport drilled a 3-pointer right out of the locker room, and Illinois proceeded to miss 10 consecutive field-goal attempts at one point, as the hot-shooting Bearcats’ stunning run eventually reached 22-5 to start the second half.

It was about that point that Underwood tore the wrapper off a piece of gum.

Might have been an antacid.

The nation’s top-ranked defense through the first couple weeks of the season suddenly struggled to guard the Bearcats on the perimeter. And regardless of whether Cockburn wasn’t in the lineup, the Illini had trouble chasing down deep rebounds, which gave Cincinnati second and third chances on several trips down the floor.

That was enough to send the Bearcats to their first win over a ranked team since beating Tennessee on Dec. 18, 2019.

“We haven’t arrived, guys,” Miller said. “It was a good night, I’m excited, but we haven’t arrived or crossed the finish line.

Loyola Marymount 76, SMU 70 - Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- — Joe Quintana had 24 points as Loyola Marymount got past SMU 76-70 on Monday night.

Eli Scott had 18 points for Loyola Marymount (3-2). Keli Leaupepe added 11 points. Dameane Douglas had 10 points.

Kendric Davis had 17 points for the Mustangs (3-3). Zach Nutall added 15 points. Jahmar Young Jr. had 13 points.