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By Bill Koch
GoBearcats.com
CINCINNATI - Kevin Johnson, a veteran of the post-game interview room, had to use all his powers of persuasion to convince freshman guard Jarron Cumberland to join him there Sunday night.
"Can you all ask Jarron Cumberland all the questions?" Johnson said to reporters, teasing his young teammate. "He didn't want to come here today, so I want all the questions to go to Jarron Cumberland. He's got all the answers."
Cumberland smiled uneasily and managed to deftly field a few questions about his career-high 19-point performance in the University of Cincinnati's blowout 92-56 victory over Tulane before 10,328 fans at Fifth Third Arena. But he clearly would have rather been almost anyplace else.
Early in the season, Cumberland displayed the same lack of confidence on the court, not at all what you'd expect from a player who averaged 29.6 points last year at Wilmington High School. But as the season has progressed, he seems to be feeling more and more at home, which is a good sign for the Bearcats.
"I know what Coach is expecting out of me," Cumberland said. "He knows what I can do. The numbers that I put up tonight I can do that almost every game. It's just building my confidence. I can't be scared when I get in the game or anything."
Cumberland was one of three UC players in double figures. Johnson added 15 and Jacob Evans scored 13, even though his first half was "probably the worst he's had as a Bearcat," according to UC coach Mick Cronin. Tre Scott added 10 rebounds in 20 minutes to go with six points.
No. 23 UC (12-2 overall, 2-0 in the American Athletic Conference) won its fifth straight game and its 17th straight at home. Tulane (3-11, 0-2) lost its fourth straight and suffered its most lopsided defeat of the season.
UC shot 56.9 percent from the field overall and made 13 of 24 from long range while holding Tulane to 27.4 percent, 18.8 percent in the second half. Cameron Reynolds led the Green Wave with 17 points.
With the score tied, 6-6, UC reeled off 14 straight points to take a 20-6 lead. Cumberland scored eight of those points in succession on two 3-pointers and a follow shot. The Bearcats increased their lead 16, at 24-8, on two Cumberland free throws with 9:49 left.
At that point, Tulane had made only 4 of 14 field goal attempts, but then made five of its next eight, including three treys, to get back in the game. The Green Wave trailed, 34-27, with 1:20 to go in the half. Following a UC timeout, the Bearcats scored the last five points of the half - two on a Kyle Washington dunk and three on a Johnson trey, to take a 39-27 lead into intermission.
"In the first half they did a good job of doing everything they needed to do to stay around with their offensive rebounding," Cronin said of Tulane. "They had 11 at halftime. That kept them in it. We force teams to miss a lot of shots, but we've got to do a better job on the defensive backboard. We did that in the second half and that was the key. Once we were able to finish the possession with a rebound we were able to run out and get some layups and dunks."
UC started the second half by making four of its first five shots to extend its 12-point halftime lead to 19. Four minutes later, after a flurry of four straight 3-pointers, the lead was 60-34 with 14:08 to go. By the 11:56 mark, the Bearcats had made 10 of 11 from the field in the second half, seven of eight from long range, to build a 70-37 lead.
Cumberland made six of eight from the field, four of six from the free throw line, and and made all three of his 3-point shots on the way to his fifth double-figure scoring game of the season.
"I think he's gonna have a lot more in his career," Cronin said. "Tonight he didn't live behind the 3-point line, which I think early in the season he was doing too much. He was just feeling his way. But he's more aggressive off the dribble lately. That's why I put him in early tonight. I knew he was ready to play. I could see it in practice. He's starting to be comfortable with who he is on this team and that his teammates want him to be a big part of the team."
Johnson, who seems to have taken Cumberland under his wing, lavished congratulations on the freshman for the way he handled himself after the interview session was over, doing his best to bring him out of his shell, something the upperclassmen have been doing ever since Cumberland arrived on campus last summer
"In practice the older guys help me out and tell me to just calm down and don't let people rush me and just play my game," Cumberland said.
That's exactly what Cronin wants to see from the older guys.
"He's starting to be comfortable with who he is on this team and that his teammates want him to be a big part of the team," Cronin said of Cumberland. "Early on he was definitely like, 'Am I supposed to shoot? Am I allowed to shoot?' Not because of me. I think more because of his teammates. He's such a good kid I think he was trying to fit in too much early in the season. His attacking mentality is when he's at his best."
UC has now scored 90 or more points five times this season, something no UC team has done since the 2000-01 team did it six times. And the season isn't even halfway over.
More importantly, after a hard-fought victory at Temple last week, the Bearcats took care of business against a lesser opponent the way a ranked team with high aspirations is supposed to.
"When you get a good win over Temple that's got a decent RPI," Johnson said, "you don't want to come in and bump your head against Tulane."
uBill 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.