Tulane drops road finale at Cincinnati despite career-high 37 by Forbes

CINCINNATI, Ohio – Despite a career performance by Jaylen Forbes he Tulane men’s basketball team suffered a 91-71 defeat to Cincinnati in its final regular season game on the road Friday afternoon at Fifth Third Arena.

Forbes poured in a career-high 37 points on 9-of-15 shooting and made his first seven attempts from 3-point range while going 12-of-15 at the free throw line. The Florence, Mississippi native’s 37 points are the most by any player in the American Athletic Conference this season and the most by a Green Wave player since Jerald Honeycutt had 38 against Xavier on Jan. 16, 1997.

His seven treys are tied for the second most in a single game in program history with Cameron Reynolds being the last to hit seven against Alcorn State in November 2017.

Freshman Sion James also reached double-figures with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting to complement a season-high four steals and four rebounds.

Both sides made three of their first seven shots after back-to-back layups by Pope tied the game, 9-9, with 15:22 remaining in the first half.

The Green Wave (9-11, 4-11 AAC) fell into some early foul trouble when Pope and Walker each picked two fouls, respectively. The Bearcats (9-8, 7-5 AAC) pounced on the opportunity and scored eight straight points for a 17-9 lead but back-to-back 3-pointers by Forbes ended the run at the 11-minute mark.

That proved to be just the beginning of Forbes’ scorching-hot scoring spree as he made five consecutive treys to give Tulane a 24-18 lead with 8:31 to play. Cincinnati connected on consecutive 3s of their own to tie the game at 24 just one minute later.

Despite a layup by James giving the Wave a 28-24 edge with 5:45 left, Cincinnati erupted with a 9-0 scoring run down to the 4:35 mark for a 33-28 advantage. The sides knotted up at 33 on Forbes’ sixth triple of the first half and again at 35 on a layup by Gabe Watson, but the Bearcats reclaimed the lead before taking a 44-40 lead into halftime.

Tulane shot 13-of-25 (.520) from the field, 6-of-8 (.750) beyond the arc and 8-of-13 (.615) at the free throw line in the first half. Cincinnati shot 14-of-31 (.452) in the period, 8-of-16 (.500) from outside and 8-of-10 (.800) at the foul stripe.

The scoring continued at its torrid pace on both sides early in the second half, as Forbes knocked down his seventh consecutive 3-pointer with to give the Green Wave a 46-45 lead. The lead changed hands four more times down to the 11-minute mark and Forbes connected on one of two free throws to tie the game at 58 with 10:48 remaining.

Tied at 62 with 9:26 left after two more free throws by Forbes, the Bearcats scored eight straight points to ignite a 21-3 scoring run down to the 3:53 mark, as Tulane called timeout trailing 83-65.

Both teams subbed in their benches for the final minutes as Cincinnati pulled away.

Tulane finished the day shooting 21-of-49 (.429) overall, 7-of-20 (.350) from 3-point land and 22-of-29 (.759) at the free throw line, while Cincinnati shot 33-of-65 (.508) on the floor, 10-of-26 (.385) from outside and 15-of-17 (.882) at the charity stripe.

Jeremiah Davenport led the Bearcats with 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting with four 3s, while Tari Eason shot 8-of-8 from the floor to finish with a double-double comprising 20 points over 13 rebounds with three blocks.

Tulane returns home to host Wichita State on Wednesday, March 3. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m., at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.