ORLANDO – For 20 minutes, it appeared the University of Memphis was going to pull off the upset of this year's Aaron's American Athletic Conference Championship. The Tigers, the tournament's No. 5 seed, had the top-seeded Cincinnati Bearcats on their heels in the semifinals.
But as tournament top seeds are accustomed to doing, the Bearcats, ranked eighth nationally, took the Tigers' best punches and came back with a stronger counterpunch, relying on a suffocating second-half defensive effort to eliminate Memphis, 70-60, Saturday at the Amway Center.
In the second half, the Bearcats (29-4) held the Tigers (21-13) to 18 points and 18.