No. 11 Houston, No. 24 Cincinnati to face off in AAC final

Conference titans No. 11 Houston and No. 24 Cincinnati will duke it out for the American Athletic Conference tournament championship Sunday in Memphis.

The Cougars (31-2) and Bearcats (27-6) are the top two seeds in the AAC and will play for the conference title for the second consecutive year. A win would give Houston its third over Cincy this season and avenge last year's loss to the Bearcats in the title tilt.

Both teams won hard-fought semifinal games Saturday to reach the championship game.

The Cougars survived a second-half onslaught from the Memphis Tigers, who held Houston without a field goal over the final 9:57 to nearly pull off the upset before falling 61-58.

Further, the Cougars missed five of six free throws down the stretch, committed four turnovers, went four-plus minutes without scoring a point, and got crushed on the boards in the second half as the Tigers made a frenzied rally after trailing by 14 with 9:57 remaining.

"Most of our wounds were self-inflicted," Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson said. "We had some kids who just didn't play with a lot of confidence for whatever reason. This isn't rocket science. Sometimes that unguarded 15-footer can be daunting."

The Bearcats survived nearly identical circumstances.

Cincy led 53-40 with 9:33 remaining only to see Wichita State go on a 22-9 run to knot the game at 62 with 2:59 to play. But Cane Broom's layup with 27 seconds remaining broke the tie and the Bearcats held on to win 66-63.

The Cougars defeated Cincy by seven in Houston on Feb. 10, and then trounced the Bearcats, 85-69, in Cincinnati one week ago to clinch the top seed in the AAC.

Houston leading scorer Corey Davis Jr. went off for a career-high 31 points in that game, an outcome that left Cincinnati head coach Mick Cronin none too pleased.

"I may call Coach Fickell," Cronin said after the game, referring to Bearcats football coach Luke Fickell. "We'll see. I don't know 1/8when 3/8 his guys start spring ball. We'll have tryouts tomorrow at 3 o'clock. I'm not being funny. Three o'clock tomorrow, we'll have tryouts to see who goes to Memphis" for the AAC tourney.

"They need to be embarrassed, like their coach is," Cronin said.

Outside of losing twice to Houston and an embarrassing loss to East Carolina on Jan. 5, Cincy's only other conference loss came at UCF on March 7.

Houston's only two losses came on the road to Temple and at home against UCF.

Last week's outlier aside, the Bearcats and Cougars closely resemble each other. Both have superior defenses, both are led by prolific superstars and both have veteran leadership.

Through March 13 games, the Cougars had the 10th best scoring defense nationally (61.6) and the Bearcats the 11th at 62.0.

The Bearcats are led by AAC player of the year Jarron Cumberland (18.6 points per game) while the Cougars counter Davis (16.8 ppg), whom many thought would win the honor.

Davis, along with senior Galen Robinson Jr. and junior Armoni Brooks, give the Cougars a steady presence in tight games, Saturday's semifinal notwithstanding.

Seniors Justin Jenifer and Broome to go with juniors Cumberland, Tre Scott and Nysier Brooks give the Bearcats a veteran presence, too.

--Field Level Media

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