PROVIDENCE, R.I - The American Athletic Conference rang in the New Year with five men's basketball games to open the 2019 league slate on Wednesday night. All five home teams were victorious including the three squads that are currently receiving votes in the national polls. With the wins, No. 19/17 Houston, rv/rv Cincinnati, -/rv UCF, SMU and USF all extended to their win streaks and have combined to now win 32-straight games.
Wednesday, January 2
Tulane 61, rv/rv Cincinnati 93
The Bearcats (12-2, 1-0) hit the floor running, pouncing on the Green Wave (4-9, 0-1) from the outset and posting a 93-61 victory before 10,689 fans at Fifth Third Arena in The American opener for both teams. UC has now won nine of its last 10 conference openers.
The victory was the 1,800th in UC history, which ranks 14th among all Division I programs. Arizona is 13th with 1,805.
Senior guard Cane Broome got his first start since Nov. 16 and responded with 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting. He was also 5-for-5 from the free throw line, scoring in double figures for the first time since he scored 14 points at UNLV on Dec. 1.
Broome set the tone for the Bearcats offensively when he scored UC's first five points.
Junior guard Jarron Cumberland led the Bearcats with 22 points and senior point guard Justin Jenifer added a career-high 18. Cumberland made 6-of-10 shots from the field, including 3-of-5 from 3-point range. He was 7-of-8 from the free throw line, with seven rebounds and five assists in 31 minutes without committing a turnover. Jenifer also stuffed the stat sheet. He was 6-of-7 from the field, 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, with five assists and four rebounds in 22 minutes. The national leader in assist-to-turnover ratio; he too, did not commit a turnover.
Cumberland, the leading 3-point shooter in The American, has made 11 of his last 18 three-point shots over his last three games.
UC used scoring runs of 15-1 and 15-0 in the first half to jump out to a 50-23 lead with 1:31 left in the half. Its largest lead was 32 with 6:56 remaining in the game.
The Bearcats made 10-of-21 from three-point range and knocked down 19-of-23 from the free throw line while committing only five turnovers.
Jordan Cornish and Caleb Daniels combined for 35 of Tulane's 61 points but no other Green Wave player scored more than eight points.
Temple 73, -/rv UCF 78
UCF came back from an 11-day hiatus and opened American Athletic Conference play with a home victory over visiting Temple, 78-73, and improving to 11-2 overall Wednesday at CFE Arena.
The Knights went 29-of-48 from the floor. UCF recorded a season-best 60.4 percentage for the game and went 4-of-11 from beyond the arc.
The Knights led by as many as 13 points in the second half, holding off a late Temple run for the five-point win. UCF outscored the Owls 44-16 in the paint and 19-9 off of turnovers to earn its first victory of conference play and its fifth straight overall.
Senior BJ Taylor led UCF with 24 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor. Taylor also went 3-of-7 from long range and had two assists in the win.
UCF put all five starters in double figures, including senior Tacko Fall, who finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. The 7-foot-6 center also added three blocks and two assists for the Knights.
Collin Smith added 12, Terrell Allen had 11 and tied a season-high with seven assists, and Aubrey Dawkins finished in double figures for the 13th straight game, totaling 10 points with three assists.
The Owls (10-3) stayed in the game with some of their best three-point shooting of the season. Temple went 13-of-27 from beyond the arc but got outrebounded 31-23 against the Knights.
Nate Pierre-Louis led the way with 21 points, while Shizz Alston Jr. had 18 and Quinton Rose totaled 17 in the loss.
Tulsa 56, No. 19/17 Houston 74
Senior Corey Davis Jr. scored 21 points and hit six 3-pointers and No. 19/17 Houston remained undefeated, beating Tulsa 74-56 on Wednesday night in the American Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
Houston (14-0) extended the longest home winning streak in the nation to 27 games.
Freshman Nate Hinton had 13 points and eight rebounds, and senior Galen Robinson Jr. added 10 points for Houston. The Cougars shot only 37 percent, but outrebounded Tulsa 52-40, including 16-9 on the offensive glass, and had an 18-7 edge in second-chance points.
Martins Igbanu had 18 points and eight rebounds, and Daquan Jeffries added 10 points and six rebounds for Tulsa (10-4). The Golden Hurricane shot 31 percent from the field and had their five-game winning streak snapped.
Houston missed its first 10 field goals before Robinson' two free throws and a layup by Brison Gresham with 14 minutes left in the first half cut Tulsa's lead to 6-4. The Cougars heated up from there, opening a 26-16 lead on Armoni Brooks' 3-pointer that capped a 10-2 run. Houston led 36-25 at the half, making 11 of its last 24 shots.
Tulsa could never get closer than nine in the second half, with Houston putting it out of reach with a 15-6, capped by DeJon Jarreau's layup with 6 1/2 minutes left that upped it to 63-45. Davis had six to lead the run.
The Golden Hurricane had no points off 10 Houston turnovers.
Houston forced 12 turnovers, turning them into 12 points. Houston had also had 18 assists on 25 field goals.
ECU 54, SMU 82
Jahmal McMurray had 20 points and four assists and SMU blew past ECU 82-54 in an American Athletic Conference opener on Wednesday night.
Jimmy Whitt Jr. scored 17 points, Isiaha Mike and Nat Dixon added 11 points each and Ethan Chargois chipped in 10 as the Mustangs (9-4, 1-0) improved to 7-0 when at least four players score in double digits. McMurray had his third 20-plus game of the season.
Jayden Gardner led ECU (7-6, 0-1) with 16 points and seven rebounds, and Tyler Foster added 11 points.
The Mustangs took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by McMurray with 7:02 remaining in the first half and SMU led 35-25 at halftime.
SMU doubled its lead in the first two minutes of the second half with McMurray contributing seven points in a 10-0 run. The lead reached 30 points midway through the second half and the Mustangs cruised to their seventh win in the past eight games.
UConn 68, USF 76
Laquincy Rideau had 25 points, David Collins overcame foul trouble to add 17 key second-half points, and USF battled back from a double-digit deficit to beat UConn, 76-68, Wednesday night in the American Athletic Conference opener for both teams.
USF (11-2, 1-0) also got 12 points from Alexis Yetna in its seventh-consecutive victory. It's the Bulls' first seven-game winning streak since 2007-08, and their most wins in a season since 2013-14 (12).
Jalen Adams led UConn (9-5, 0-1) with 25 points and Christian Vital added 16.
USF trailed by 13 with 2:20 left in the first half, but eventually took the lead at 41-40 when made a layup with 12 1/2 minutes remaining. He scored his first point of the night moments earlier when he made 1-of-2 from the line.
Collins' trey made it 57-48 with six minutes left.
Adams had a layup and connected on two free throws, cutting the deficit to 66-62 with 1:25 to go.
Collins, who entered as the Bulls leading scorer at 13.9 points, helped secure the win with four free throws in the final minute.
Adams had 11 points in the first half as UConn took a 33-25 halftime lead.
USF held a strong edge on the glass by a 47-32 margin, including a 15-8 edge in offensive rebounds.
The Bulls surpassed their entire 2017-18 season total with their 11th win of the year. USF scored 51 points in the second half to mark its most points in any half this season and made a season-best 29 free throws
USF snapped a 10-game losing streak to UConn and is in the midst of its second-best start in school history.
The Bulls totaled at least 40 rebounds for the eighth time this season.
USF has held five of its last six opponents to fewer than 70 points.
UPCOMING GAMES