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By Bill Koch
Go.BEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI - Based on what they said after the game Saturday, it sounded as if the University of Cincinnati Bearcats were determined to break out of the funk that has seen them lose two in a row and three of their last five.
But it's what they do on the court that matters, starting Wednesday against Xavier in the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout.
The word "desperation" was bandied about a few times after the Bearcats were stunned by a 30-foot shot at the buzzer by Tulane's Jonathan Stark that gave the Green Wave a 50-49 victory before 12,041 fans at Fifth Third Arena.
"We've got to play with more desperation," said senior forward Jermaine Sanders. "We're playing too relaxed right now, like we're good. But we're really not. We need to just step it up on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. The way we're playing, we won't be in the NCAA Tournament if we keep playing the way we've been playing these last few games."
UC (17-8 overall, 8-4 in the American Athletic Conference) had taken a 49-47 lead on a Gary Clark layup off a feed from Troy Caupain with 4 seconds left. Tulane then got the ball to Stark, who dribbled across mid-court and fired a 3-pointer over UC's Farad Cobb that swished through the net as time expired. Both teams stood on the floor while the officials checked the replay and determined that Stark's shot had been launched before time expired.
"It happens," said UC forward Octavius Ellis, who led UC with 15 points and six rebounds. "It's basketball. We guarded the best we could. He just threw up a Hail Mary and it went in. I think we should have pressed the ball way more up the court. I think we picked up at the free throw line. We should have just picked up from out of bounds."
Ellis said the Bearcats might have been surprised when Tulane didn't call timeout to set up a final shot, but Tulane coach Ed Conroy said that was never in the cards.
"You get the ball out as quickly as you can," Conroy said, "get it to Jonathan and push it up the floor. We are not calling timeout unless the clock is under four seconds. We can get a better shot that way. And they executed perfectly."
Tulane (14-10, 5-7) ended a five-game losing streak and rallied from a 34-28 deficit with 9:51 to play after it had squandered a 19-13 halftime lead. At that point, it appeared the Bearcats had overcome a terrible first half to finally have things under control, but the Green Wave dropped in three 3-pointers - two by Jay Hook, who led Tulane with 18 points - to retake the lead.
According to associate head coach Larry Davis, those 3-pointers, more than the shot at the buzzer, cost the Bearcats the game against a team that was ranked No. 183 in Jerry Palm's RPI.
"The most ironic thing about the game was that defense kept us in it when we couldn't throw it in the ocean and couldn't get anything going on offense and it was defense that lost it for us in the end," Davis said. "We wasted a tremendous effort of hanging in there and hanging in there and hanging in there and then at the end it was the defense that got us."
UC played its worst first half of the season, scoring a season-low 13 points, while shooting 25 percent from the floor. The Bearcats improved in the second half to score 36 points while shooting 61.5 percent, but went the entire game without making a 3-point shot in 11 tries. They were out-rebounded, 39-27, surrendered 14 offensive rebounds, and made only five of 13 free throws.
It was the first time since Feb. 24, 2010 that UC had failed to make a 3-point shot. The Bearcats had gone 138 games with at least one 3-pointer.
Now the Bearcats face the necessity of having to finish strong to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight time. They didn't need a bracketologist to tell them that.
"I can't be more disappointed," Davis said. "Like I told our team, we've got a decision to make about who we want to be. Over the course of the next month here, now we're going to have to play our win in with all we've got to the NCAA Tournament in my estimation. We put ourselves square on the bubble today. We're going to have to make an unbelievable effort down the stretch here in these last five or six games starting next week against Xavier."
Bill Koch covered UC Athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of GoBEARCATS.com in January, 2015 as featured columnist. Follow him on Twitter @bkoch.
The Bearcats return home to host the Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout versus Xavier on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 7 p.m. The game is sold out, but fans are encouraged to visit UC's official secondary ticket market at VividSeats.com. Tickets for the other remaining home games are available by calling 877-CATS-TIX or visiting BearcatsBasketball.com.