Cincy cruises past Cowboys Big 12 tourney

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Dillon Mitchell had 18 points and a career-high 15 rebounds, Day Day Thomas scored 21 points, and No. 13 seed Cincinnati cruised to an 87-68 victory over No. 12 seed Oklahoma State to open the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday.

Josh Reed added 19 points and Dan Skillings Jr. scored 13 on an array of high-flying dunks, sending the Bearcats (18-14) into the second round against fifth-seeded Iowa State on Wednesday.

Cincinnati won 10 of its first 11 games and climbed as high as No. 14 in the AP Top 25 before struggling in conference play. The Bearcats lost their first four Big 12 games and endured another four-game skid in late January and early February.

They played more like a ranked team on Tuesday, though, in avenging a loss to Oklahoma State (15-17) in Stillwater last weekend. The Bearcats opened a 38-26 lead by halftime and never allowed the Cowboys to get within 10 the rest of the way.

Oklahoma State went most of the way without top scorer and rebounder Abou Ousmane, who played a mere nine minutes before he fouled out by drawing a technical foul in the second half. The senior finished with just four points and one rebound.

Connor Dow hit four 3-pointers and had a career-best 12 points to lead the Cowboys.

The Bearcats led 46-34 with 16:30 left when they scored nine straight points, the last four on back-to-back turnovers that led to run-out layups.

The Cowboys picked up two technical fouls in the game. Arturo Dean got one for arguing with officials in the first half.

Cincinnati will play the 12th-ranked Cyclones in the first game of Wednesday’s second round.

COLORADO 69, TCU 67

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Andrej Jakimovski had 18 points, Julian Hammond III added 16 and Colorado was perfect at the foul line in the final 20 seconds, allowing the 16th and last seed in the Big 12 Tournament to hold on for a 69-67 victory over No. 9 seed TCU on Tuesday.

Hammond made a pair of foul shots for the Buffaloes (13-19) with 20 seconds left for a 67-65 lead, and after TCU answered with a goal-tending call at the other end, Javon Ruffin made two more free throws with 5.8 seconds left to put the game away.

TCU (16-16) also lost to Colorado last Saturday in the teams’ regular-season finale.

The Buffaloes, who returned to the Big 12 from the Pac-12 and are playing in the league’s tournament for the first time since the 2011 season, will play eighth-seeded West Virginia on Wednesday for a spot in the quarterfinal round.

Noah Reynolds had 17 points and Trazarien White scored 13 for the Horned Frogs, who trailed 63-50 with 5 minutes to go before scoring the next 10 points, making it a tense final minute for a small but loud crowd inside T-Mobile Center.

Bangot Dak dunked off a nifty feed from Trevor Baskin to give TCU a 65-60 lead with just over a minute to go.

CU went 18 of 24 from the foul line. TCU was just 10 of 20.

The Buffaloes will play the Mountaineers in the second round Wednesday.