Tulane falls to No. 10 Cincinnati on Senior Night, 78-49

NEW ORLEANS – In front of a season-best crowd home crowd of 2,824, the Tulane men’s basketball team suffered a 78-49 home loss to 10th-ranked Cincinnati on Senior Night in American Athletic Conference action at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.

Melvin Frazier led Tulane (14-15, 5-12 AAC) with 13 points, five rebounds and three steals, while Caleb Daniels chipped in 10 points off the bench for his fifth straight game in double-figures.

Cincinnati’s (26-4, 15-2 AAC) Kyle Washington topped all players with 16 points and seven rebounds, as Cane Broome chipped in 13 points on 6 of 7 shooting off the bench. Jacob Evans scored 11 points in the first 11 minutes of the game before leaving with an injury, while Tre Scott added 10 points and six boards.

“I was disappointed by the fact that we gave up 47 points over turnovers and second chance points,” head coach Mike Dunleavy, Sr., said. “Some of that is our mistakes and some of that is their ability, but our effort wasn’t as good as their effort by any means. The other part of the game that I was disappointed in from the very get go was that we didn’t deliver the basketball.”

Both sides exchanged baskets to start the game, as a Frazier three-point play with 16:44 left tied the game at five-all. The Bearcats scored seven straight points and 12 of the next 14 however, creating their first double digit advantage of the night, 17-7, on a put-back dunk by Washington at the 12:44 mark.

The Green Wave made just two of their first 14 shot attempts and struggled to take full grasp of an offensive flow, as Cincinnati had success creating turnovers and altering shots at the defensive end. The Bearcats opened up a 10-0 run to increase their lead to 35-17 with 3:31 remaining, but that run ended on a Cameron Reynolds jumper with 2:33 left.

“We started some first 5 possessions where I felt that we had some opportunities to get the ball where we wanted to, but we didn’t deliver it,” Dunleavy said. “We let them catch up to a play and then its kind of too late.”

Washington dropped in a layup with 15 seconds to go in the half for Cincinnati, which took its largest advantage of the period into the intermission, 39-20.

Tulane shot 7-for-28 (.250) overall, missed all five 3-point attempts and went 6-for-7 (.857) at the free throw line in the first half, while Cincinnati went 15-for-33 (.355) from the floor, 4-for-9 (.444) from 3-point range and 5-for-6 (.833) at the foul stripe.

The Bearcats established their first 20-point margin of the evening with their first basket just 80 seconds into the second half, and broke out on a 13-2 scoring run, including nine straight, down to the 11:35 mark to build a 31-point lead, 59-28.

Cincinnati built its largest advantage of the night – 33 points – on a layup by Scott with 8:26 to go to make it 66-33, and while the Green Wave was able to get the deficit under 30 on multiple occasions, the Bearcats did not give an inch before closing out the 29-point road victory.

“It’s very disappointing, even if the crowd wasn’t there,” Reynolds said. “It’s just disappointing because we lost by so much, but it’s an extra disappointment because we invited everyone to come out and they came in full effect, so we wanted to do well.”

Tulane finished the night shooting 16-for-51 (.314) overall, 3-for-14 (.214) beyond the arc and 14-for-17 (.824) at the foul line, while Cincinnati went 29-for-60 (.483) on the floor, 5-for-13 (.385) from outside and 15-for-17 (.882) at the stripe.

The Bearcats owned a 41-26 rebounding advantage and outscored the Wave, 36-18, in the paint, 23-15 off turnovers, 24-8 on second chances and 35-14 off the bench.

Tulane closes out its regular season Sunday, March 4 in Orlando, Fla., at UCF. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. (CT) and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.