Tickets Box Score | USATSI Photo Gallery 
By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
TULSA - At some point, it would seem the close games would begin to even out for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats, but they should know by now that basketball doesn't work that way. Teams win close games because they make plays with the game on the line. Or at least they avoid making killer mistakes.
The Bearcats failed on both counts Thursday.
In the end, their miscues overcame their resolve and they fell to Tulsa, 70-68, in overtime before 4,402 fans at the Reynolds Center.
"We should have won this game by 10 or 12 points in my opinion," said UC coach Mick Cronin. "Give Tulsa credit. They did what they had to do to win."
It was the fifth two-point loss of the season for UC and the second that ended in either overtime or double overtime. The Bearcats had beaten Tulsa, 76-57, at Fifth Third Arena on Jan. 2.
This loss was especially hard to stomach because the Bearcats (19-8 overall, 9-5 in the American Athletic Conference) had so many chances to win and frittered away every one of them. For starters, senior forward Octavius Ellis missed two point-blank layups in the final 1:49 of regulation. He also missed three free throws in the final 4:41.
Things didn't get any better in overtime. With nine seconds left in overtime, a crucial call went against UC, which trailed by one at the time, after Jacob Evans missed a 3-point shot from the corner. As UC's Gary Clark was about to secure the offensive rebound, the ball was knocked out of his hands, ostensibly by a Tulsa player, and went out of bounds. But after an extensive check of the replay the officials ruled that it had gone off Clark and awarded the ball to Tulsa.
On the Golden Hurricane's next possession, Troy Caupain fouled Pat Birt with 7.6 seconds left. Birt missed the front end of the one-and-one only to get a reprieve when Clark was called for entering the lane too soon. Given a second chance, Birt made both free throws to put the Tulsa Golden ahead by three.
Caupain was then fouled with three seconds left. He made the first of two free throws to get UC within two and was instructed by Cronin to miss the second intentionally to give his teammates a chance for a tip-in. But his second shot smacked off the backboard without touching the rim, a violation that turned the ball over to Tulsa.
UC had one last chance when it forced a turnover on Tulsa's inbounds pass, but Shaq Thomas' last-second 3-point shot was no good and the Bearcats were left to ponder the aggregation of mistakes that cost them another much-needed victory.
"There were a lot of miscues," Clark said, "giving up too many layups in the second half. We're always preaching that that you've got to make teams earn everything. One play I had a lane violation and the guy goes up and knocks down two free throws right after that. Those are mistakes you can't let happen at this point in the season."
Clark led UC with 18 points and nine rebounds but scored only five in the second half. Caupain scored 15 and pulled down a career-high nine rebounds with four assists. He also sent the game into overtime when he made a driving layup with one second left in regulation to tie the score at 62-62. Ellis scored 11 points with nine rebounds, but he also committed four turnovers. Thomas was back in the starting lineup for UC after missing the East Carolina game with foot and ankle injuries. He scored one point in 16 minutes.
James Woodard scored 19 points and pulled down nine rebounds for Tulsa (17-9, 9-5). He was one of four Hurricane players to score in double figures.
UC's mistakes were damaging enough on their own, but when coupled with a sub-par second-half defensive performance, they created a combination the Bearcats simply couldn't overcome. Tulsa scored 36 points in the paint against UC's usually stout defense, 26 in the second half and overtime.
"It was a frustrating game," Cronin said. "We had a lot of defensive breakdowns. Our second-half defense was porous. That's the part I'm upset with the most. I feel bad for Octavius. He didn't try to miss those layups. I feel bad for Gary on the free throw violation. Jake (Evans) missed a wide-open three from the corner. I feel bad for him because he's going to beat himself up over it. I try to tell these guys we give away too many baskets that we shouldn't give away, things that Cincinnati doesn't do."
UC led by nine with 6:47 left in the first half and was still leading by eight with the ball when Cronin called timeout at the 15-second mark to set up a final shot. Kevin Johnson missed the shot with three seconds left. Woodard rebounded for Tulsa, then turned around and heaved a 3-point shot that found the basket as time expired.
Instead of heading into intermission with a 10-point lead, the Bearcats led by only five. When Tulsa scored the first six points of the second half, it completed a 9-0 run that put the Hurricane ahead by one, setting the stage for the struggle that would ensue.
"We were handling them pretty well in that first half," Clark said. "When that (shot) falls in, it gives them a little life. But still that doesn't make up all the bonehead plays we made down the stretch."
There were almost too many to count. Early in the overtime period, with the score tied at 64-64, Coreontae DeBerry received a pass on the low block only to shuffle his feet for a traveling call before he could go up to shoot. With the score still tied, Evans stole the ball from Marquel Curtis and was fouled by Curtis as he drove to the basket. A 90.9 percent free throw shooter, Evans missed the first of two free throws before making the second to give UC a 65-64 lead with 1:22 left. The Bearcats would not lead again.
UC was 0-for-4 from the free throw line in the second half and failed to make a field goal in the overtime period, missing all six of its shots. The Bearcats also committed 13 turnovers that Tulsa converted into 10 points.
What made the loss even more costly was the fact that Tulsa was ranked No. 47 in the RPI, so a UC victory would have been a huge boost to its NCAA Tournament hopes. Instead, it's just one more close loss, the kind that has left the Bearcats on the bubble with March rapidly approaching. Clark called it the most frustrating loss of the season and it was easy to understand why.
"For sure," he said. "You give the team the game the whole second half."
Bill Koch covered UC athletics for 27 years -- 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer -- before joining the staff of Go.Bearcats.com in January, 2015. He has written a new book, a memoir titled, "I Can't Believe I Got Paid For This." The book is available on-line only at CreateSpace and Amazon.com