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CINCINNATI - Shanice Johnson recorded her 10th double-double of the season with an 18-point, 14-rebound performance while Ana Owens chipped in 15 points, but it was not enough as the University of Cincinnati women's basketball team suffered a 74-68 overtime setback to visiting Tulane Saturday afternoon inside Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati.
The Bearcats slipped to 14-7 overall and 5-3 in the American Athletic Conference while the Green Wave, behind a 35-point performance from Kolby Morgan, improved to 14-7 overall and 5-3 in league play.
UC built leads of 15-12 and 30-24 following the first and second quarters, respectively, before the visitors went on a 14-2 run to close out the third quarter and square the game at 48 with 10 minutes to play. Both teams tallied 13 points in the final stanza with TU grabbing a steal and scoring a layup with 11 seconds remaining to force overtime.
The Bearcats, playing in their first overtime contest since the 2014-15 season - a 69-66 victory over visiting Houston on January 31, 2015 - were held scoreless for nearly three minutes at the opening of the extra session and trailed by five points before Bianca Quisenberry nailed an open three-point look from the right side to cut the deficit to two points with 1:21 remaining. But, that was as close as the hosts would come as missed shots by the Bearcats and made free throws from the Green Wave resulted in the visitors building on their lead before pulling out the win.
UC, who next will travel to USF for a 7 p.m. conference game on Wednesday, February 1, were forced into 21 turnovers on the day while forcing 16, 10 of which were steals. Johnson led the way with a team and game-high five steals while also finishing with a team-high four assists and two blocked shots. Owens, who entered the game with 1,010 career points, saw her career total rise to 1,025, which places her in the No. 22 position on the program's all-time scoring ledger after she moved past Cindy Spence (1976-80), who tallied 1,022 points in her time with UC.
The game opened with the Bearcats receiving balanced scoring as all five starters scored at least two points in the first quarter. Conversely, the Green Wave had only one player in the scoring column through the opening 10 minutes of play as Morgan recorded all 12 points for the visitors. In fact, it wasn't until 8:45 remained in the second quarter that another Green Wave player scored points as Leslie Vorpahl hit a quick jumper from the wing.
Overall, UC hit on 41 percent shooting from the field with TU being limited to 39 percent, including being held to 29-percent shooting through the first half of play while the Bearcats were connecting on 43 percent shooting.