By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

NEW ORLEANS - The first venture this season into Conference USA brought out the worst in the University of Cincinnati basketball team Wednesday night.

The 11th-ranked Bearcats, who have been looking for their first significant challenge of the season, appeared to have found it in the first half against a Tulane team that was picked to finish 12th in the 14-team league.

Eventually, though, UC (10-0, 1-0 in C-USA) pulled away in the second half to register a 71-44 victory over the Green Wave (6-5, 0-1) at Fogelman Arena.

It wasn't very artistic, but it's hard to argue with a lopsided conference win on the road.

Tony Bobbitt led UC with 18 points. Vytas Tatarunas scored 15 to lead Tulane.

Sophomore forward Armein Kirkland left the game with a sprained left knee at the 16:07 mark of the first half and did not return. He'll be evaluated today.

Maybe it was the small crowd in a tiny building, or maybe they were a bit overconfident after winning their last four games by an average margin of 30.8 points.

Whatever the reason, the Bearcats played their worst basketball of the season in the first half, scoring only 33 points, their lowest output in a half this season.

Tulane was even worse.

The Green Wave missed its first six shots and didn't score until the 16:33 mark of the first half. But UC failed to take advantage, missing six of its first seven shots.

As he has on other occasions this year when he was upset with his team's play in the early going, UC coach Bob Huggins made wholesale substitutions less than two minutes into the game.

But this time the subs didn't provide the immediate impact that they have so often this season.

Tulane took its only lead of the game, 12-11, with 12:54 left in the half, but UC connected on three straight treys, two by Field Williams and one by Bobbitt to go on a 9-0 run and take a 20-12 lead.

But Tulane didn't wilt. The Green Wave got within three points, 27-24, with 2:43 to go before the Bearcats closed the half with a rush, scoring on a Jason Maxiell free throw, a Maxiell follow shot and a Bobbitt three-point play in transition to give UC a 33-24 lead despite its uninspired play.

UC shot just 36.1 percent in the first half, with Maxiell and James White combining to make only 4 of 17 shots, but held Tulane to 29.6 percent shooting and forced the Green Wave into 12 turnovers.

The sloppy play continued for UC in the second half when Tulane's Wayne Tinsley made two 3-pointers to get the Green Wave back to within five.

By now, Huggins appeared to be substituting not out of a desire to keep his players fresh, but out of frustration over how they were playing.

Visibly upset, Huggins called timeout with 17:26 left in the game. The Bearcats responded with a traveling violation.

But the Bearcats then began to show signs of life, going on an 8-0 run to build a 13-point lead with 14:34 to go.

UC gradually pulled away from that point.

Cincinnati	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Kirkland	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Maxiell	32	5	15	3	8	11	2	2	6	13
Johnson	25	3	3	0	0	10	0	4	1	6
F.Williams	29	5	9	0	0	2	4	0	0	13
N.Williams	18	4	8	0	0	4	2	3	1	10
Moore	15	0	2	3	6	2	3	0	3	3
Meeker	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lucas	11	0	1	0	0	2	1	0	0	0
Hicks	22	2	4	0	0	5	2	3	1	4
Bobbitt	19	7	11	1	1	5	1	3	1	18
White	25	1	8	2	2	3	1	2	1	4
Totals	200	27	62	9	17	47	15	18	15	71

Team rebounds - 3.

Tulane	M	FG	Att	FT	Att	R	A	F	TO	TP
Tatarunas	25	6	8	0	0	6	1	2	2	15
Tinsley	36	4	8	2	2	5	1	1	5	12
Davis	21	0	5	3	7	3	0	4	3	3
Kinzer	23	2	9	0	0	4	3	3	3	4
Benfield	16	0	7	0	0	1	1	1	0	0
Moore	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Camper	24	1	3	0	0	3	3	1	5	2
Aaron	6	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Fitzgerald	12	0	2	2	3	2	1	0	0	2
Castine	18	1	6	0	0	6	0	1	1	2
Brown	15	1	3	2	3	2	0	3	1	4
Totals	200	15	52	9	15	33	11	16	20	44

Team rebounds - 1.

Cincinnati	33	38	-71
Tulane	24	20	-44

3-pointers - UC 8-18 (F.Williams 3-4, N.Williams 2-6, Bobbitt 3-6, White 0-2), T 5-14 (Tatarunas 3-4, Tinsley 2-4, Kinzer 0-1, Benfield 0-3, Fitzgerald 0-2). Technicals - None. Officials - Valentine, Harzell, Pyatt. Attendance - 2,058.