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By Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
TULSA - His teammates call him "Stick the Jimmy," as in stick the jump shot, and Farad Cobb lived up to his nickname Wednesday night.
The junior guard scored 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting and made four of seven from long range to lead the University of Cincinnati Bearcats to a 56-47 victory over Tulsa before 5,840 fans at the Reynolds Center.
"I was just trying to take good shots whenever they came," Cobb said. "I got some good looks and just knocked them down when we needed them."
The victory was the fourth in a row for UC (21-9 overall, 12-5 in the American Athletic Conference), its sixth against a Top 50 RPI opponent this year, and might have been enough to catapult the Bearcats into the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight year. They have one regular-season game remaining on Sunday against Memphis at Fifth Third Arena and then the conference tournament next week in Hartford.
"If we beat them, it's going to be hard for (the selection committee) to keep us out of there," said associate head coach Larry Davis.
Tulsa (21-8, 14-3) squandered a chance to clinch at least a tie for the AAC regular-season championship and saw a four-game winning streak come to an end. The Golden Hurricane had been 17-0 this season when holding its opponent under 65 points, but as Davis pointed out, "We can defend a little."
UC's defense was at its best, holding Tulsa to 34 percent shooting and limiting the Golden Hurricane to its second-lowest point total of the season. Tulsa didn't help itself by making only 4 of 13 shots from the free throw line.
"Our coaches do a good job of telling us that the games that we play are never going to be won offensively," said sophomore guard Troy Caupain. "You lock in. You buy into the rotations. You load the box and you close out on shooters. Our big men box out and all five guys got to rebound. If you stayed locked into those details, it's kind of hard to lose focus and that's what we did. We stayed together. We bought into those details and it helped us out."
Caupain was an excellent complement to Cobb with 12 points, six rebounds, two assists and no turnovers in 33 minutes. Junior forward Octavius Ellis thrived in performing his specialties with 13 rebounds and four blocked shots to go with seven points. He also had five turnovers. Junior forward Shaq Thomas failed to score after having scored in double figures in each of his last three games.
The Bearcats got off to a slow start, committing turnovers on their first two possessions, and they did a terrible job on the glass in the early going, allowing Tulsa to snare five offensive rebounds in the first three minutes. But they finished with a 10-rebound advantage and held Tulsa to two offensive rebounds in the second half.
"At a timeout, we talked about it," Davis said. "I said, `Guys, this game wouldn't even be close right now. We've got to rebound.' The guards got in there and rebounded. Troy Caupain got in there and got to work, started battling, and the other guards got in there. That stemmed the tide a little bit."
Even with the shoddy rebounding in the early going, once UC took the lead at 5-4 with 16:22 left in the first half, it never trailed again. The Bearcats led by 12 with 4:29 left in the first half and by seven at halftime. They led by 10 with 13:56 to play, but the Golden Hurricane came back to get within four points on several occasions and to within three with 6:10 left. Davis called timeout with 7:07 left to allow his players to regroup.
"We knew they were going to make a run," Davis told them. "Now we make a run back at them. Just stay together. That's all that matters, which they did."
Tulsa did not score from the 6:10 mark of the second half until the 1:05 mark. By then, UC held a commanding 51-44 lead and all the Bearcats had to do was close out the victory. "Stick the Jimmy's" point total was just two points shy of his career high. He scored not only from the perimeter but with short jump shots around the lane.
"When we came here today for pre-game shoot-around, I was shooting on the goals and I was like, I like these rims," Cobb said. "They seem wide. Sometimes you go to a gym and the rims just seem wide. I knew it was going to be a good night."
The victory was especially sweet for the Bearcats coming on the heels of weather-related travel problems Tuesday night that forced them to bus from Lunken Airport to Lexington to take off. They didn't arrive at their hotel until about 10:30 Central time.
"I was worried about it, but we handled it," Davis said. "The guys got in, got something to eat and we got ourselves to bed. It was probably a good thing the game was late today. That allowed us to rest all day. But that's part of the whole deal. I felt like yesterday we were having haymakers thrown at us. Troy was sick, throwing up on the plane, all kinds of things were coming at us, but we didn't falter. They had great will and determination tonight."
UC coach Mick Cronin, still dealing with the arterial dissection that prevents him from coaching, watched it all unfold on television back in Cincinnati and liked what he saw, not just because of the final score, but because of the way his players went about their business.
"We didn't look young anymore," Cronin said in a text message after the game.
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 for Senior Day and the regular season finale on Sunday, March 8, versus Memphis. Tipoff is at Noon ET. For tickets to the game or the 2015 American Athletic Conference Tournament (March 12-15 in Hartford, Connecticut), call 877-CATS-TIX or visit BearcatsBasketball.com.