Written by Scott | 03 January 2012

Win number 11 came in a huge road contest for the Cincinnati Bearcats Sunday night. Sure the Pittsburgh Panthers are playing some of their worst ball of the Jamie Dixon era and Tray Woodall didn't play, but Cincinnati had to win that game. I'm not totally sure that many recent Cincinnati teams win there. Cincinnati had to take care of business against a struggling team on the road. Cincinnati went and took care of business against a struggling team on the road. The fact that struggling team has Pittsburgh across the front of the jersey are bonus points. Winning on the road in the Big East is not very easy. You have to earn road wins. The Cincinnati Bearcats earned a road win Sunday night. In what looked to be one of the toughest road games on the schedule, they took it down. With back to back home games, you are looking at a good possibility of going 3-0 to start Big East play before heading off to Georgetown. That's what everyone thought when Xavier crushed UC. 



Sean Kilpatrick, what a second half. He drilled the 3 that put UC up early in the second half. After Pitt took the lead on an Ashton Gibbs jumper at the 11:39 mark, Killa buried a 3 to give UC the lead back, then he assisted on a Cashmere Wright 3 that put UC up for good. He had a slow start to the game, 2-7 the first half, but took over the second. He was 5-11, 4-8 from 3, for 14 second half points. He took the big shots and more importantly, he made the big shots. That's what you need from your star player. In my mind Cash is the leader, Killa the star. SK may have made his biggest contribution picking up a charge with 21 seconds left. 

Speaking of Cash, he had his second straight game of not shooting well, but made a big shot late. He didn't score the first half, but got the first 4 of the second. As mentioned, his 3 at the 10:21 mark from SK put UC up for good. He as 3-5 the second half, 2 assists, 0 turnovers. It was like he had a Tu Holloway half, because he spent the first half getting guys involved, 5 assists. He had 1 turnover in the game. He made his mark on defense, where he got a game high 4 steals. He didn't get a defensive rebound for the first time in a while. Kind of odd for him. His play made up for it, though. He's the engine leading this short in height, short in depth, team of overachievers. And what an engine he is. 



Speaking on the defense, it was solid all night. Pitt shot 41%, 5-19 from 3. The Bearcats press was a problem for Pittsburgh all night. The Bearcats forced 17 turnovers. 11 of those 17 were steals. John Johnson was harassed into 5 turnovers. Pitt turned the ball over only 6 times the second half, but some of them were huge. Plus, the Bearcats made Pitt play shot for shot down the stretch, which you can't do when you are trailing. 

On that last point, Cincinnati shot 14-29, 6-12 from 3, the second half. Only 2 second half turnovers and 8 for the game. UC had 14 assists. 7 assists on 14 FGs the second half. That's how you win. 

The Bearcats played well yes, but they didn't finish well. With UC up 5 with 40 seconds left, Sean Kilpatrick got whistled for a foul when John Johnson was shooting a 3. Johnson made 2 of them, which would be key. The Bearcats wasted 11 second getting Pitt to foul 3 times before going to the line. There JaQuon Parker missed. SK picked up the charge which stopped that Panther possession. SK ended up going to the line, where he missed a front end. Pitt got a good look from Ashton Gibbs in the corner, a rebound and a look from Lamar Patterson. They won, but for the sake of the hearts of every Bearcat fan, please make free throws and ice the game. 

Scoring drought: 18:48-11:25 of the first half. 0 points. 5-2 lead to 13-5 deficit. Let's go ahead and not have to do this piece again, ok? Good. 

29 bench minutes, 3 shots, 0 points 2 rebounds, 3 fouls. Not good enough. 

UC was 3-6 at the foul line. You aren't going to win very many Big East games like that. 

The Bearcats were outrebounded 44-30, but it wasn't so terrible. Pitt had 18 offensive rebounds on 36 misses. That's a lot, but Pitt got 41% of their misses in the second half, which was an improvement. UC got 36% of their misses. You would ideally like to get more defensive rebounds than your opponent gets offensive rebounds, but not many teams offensive rebound like Pittsburgh. 

Dion Dixon, best friend alert, made some giant plays down the stretch. He beautifully timed an Ashton Gibbs 3, blocked it, raced down the court and got a pass from JaQuon Parker for a dunk. That put UC up 4. He came back the next possession and drilled another jumper. With 3:04 left, Dixon knocked down an NBA range 3 following a Pitt turnover to cap a 7-2 spurt. Dixon left the hand up after the 3 because that's what you do when you drill big shots. 

Don't know what the hell got into Justin Jackson offensively, 9 shots!! and 3 turnovers, but he did work on the defensive end. He finished with 7 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals. More importantly, he played 32 minutes. The numbers don't really show the impact he had on the game. JJ gave UC what they needed. Don't know why his nickname isn't dyn-o-mite or kid dynamite yet. Let's make that a thing. 

JaQuon Parker carried the team the first half. He was 5-8, 4-5 from 3, 2-2 at the line for 16 points. He added 5 more the second half with 5 rebounds and 2 assists to throw a 21-7-3 assist-1 steal game at ya. God I love JaQuon Parker. He's the missing link. He's the glue guy. He's the difference in this team. He's a leader on the floor. I think I mentioned this in the recap, but there was a moment in the second half when Jackson was getting into it with some Pitt players. Parker physically turned his head away and told him something. He's come a long way. 



People are getting on UC for going 6-0 without Gates. They are saying they played no one except decent OU and fading Pitt. To them I say fuck yourself. If we replayed the season with UC playing with this group, the Bearcats would be 13-1. They wouldn't have lost to Presbyterian. They wouldn't have lost to Marshall. This is a different team. People can continue to not give them credit. They did that last year. Look what happened there. That team was damn good. This team dug themselves into a hole and I think they have dug their way somewhat out of it. This isn't the team from November. The RPI and the SOS are absolutely brutal, but this squad isn't going to go down easy. Thank god we can settle things on the court and let the play do the talking. 

Before we get to the box score from Go Bearcats, thanks to Cincinnati.com for the photos, here are some quotes from Mick via Go Bearcats. 

On defense that lead to Dion Dixon’s dunk:

“Our defense on that possession put them in a late clock situation that forced Ashton (Gibbs) into a desperation shot. That whole possession was huge. I got guys right now who are playing better than the other’s coach’s guys. That’s what this league is all about. It’s a player’s league.”   

On how UC will play moving forward with the suspended players coming back: 
“We should be better. We have more depth. We’ll be able to withstand foul trouble. We should be able to press more and be more aggressive. We should be an even better team. The one thing about it, the guys have been in practice. It’s different when you don’t have guys because they are hurt.  Like Tray Woodall for the last month has been hurt and different guys are out with injuries. For us, it will be different in game situation. We don’t put them all the time as the scout team. We try to make the teams different but even every day so they all get used to playing each other.”

On coming back from the 11-0 Pitt run early:
“Right now, I've probably done the best job that I’ve done with a team at Cincinnati, mentally. We’re not worried about the score, we’re worried about deflections.  We’re confident. We’re worried about getting 40 deflections, defense and hustling. Cashmere Wright, Jaquon Parker, Sean Kilpatrick, Dion Dixon and Justin have really bought into it. We've really worked on staying positive. We were a team was too hard on each other at times. A guy misses a shot or doesn't throw the right pass and guys were giving each other looks. This game is very much about togetherness and chemistry, especially at the college level. So many kids with hopes and dreams trying to get somewhere and we've really become a team. That’s the difference. So, when you get down, nobody cares. We just keep playing, staying confident, staying together.”

Cincinnati vs PITT 
01/01/12 7:00 PM at Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, PA

Cincinnati 66

			Total	3-point		Rebounds
##	Player	p	fgm-fga	fgm-fga	ftm-fta	off-def	tot	pf	tp	a	to	blk	stl	min
05	JACKSON, Justin	f	3-9	0-1	0-0	3-4	7	4	6	1	3	3	2	32
01	WRIGHT, Cashmere	g	3-10	1-5	0-0	1-0	1	1	7	7	1	0	4	33
03	DIXON, Dion	g	6-14	1-3	0-0	3-2	5	2	13	0	2	1	1	34
23	KILPATRICK, Sean	g	7-18	5-11	0-1	2-4	6	1	19	3	1	0	2	35
44	PARKER, Jaquon	g	7-11	4-6	3-5	4-3	7	2	21	3	1	0	1	37
00	DAVIS III, Jeremiah	-	0-1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	8
14	GUYN, Ge'Lawn	-	0-1	0-1	0-0	0-1	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	10
15	SANDERS, Jermaine	-	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	6
24	GAINES, Kelvin	-	0-1	0-0	0-0	1-0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	5
TM	TEAM	-	-	-	-	1-1	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Totals..............	-	26-65	11-27	3-6	15-15	30	15	66	14	8	5	11	200
			40.0%	40.7%	50.0%
	Team summary:		FG	3FG	FT
	1st Half:		12-36	5-15	2-2
			33.3%	33.3%	100 %
	2nd Half:		14-29	6-12	1-4
			48.3%	50.0%	25.0%

PITT 63

			Total	3-point		Rebounds
##	Player	p	fgm-fga	fgm-fga	ftm-fta	off-def	tot	pf	tp	a	to	blk	stl	min
11	TAYLOR, Dante	f	0-4	0-1	2-2	5-6	11	1	2	0	3	2	0	29
21	PATTERSON, Lamar	f	4-10	3-6	2-2	3-1	4	3	13	3	1	0	1	32
35	ROBINSON, Nasir	f	8-12	0-0	3-4	5-5	10	2	19	3	3	1	0	37
03	WRIGHT, Cameron	g	1-4	0-1	1-2	1-1	2	0	3	1	2	1	0	18
12	GIBBS, Ashton	g	7-15	2-7	2-2	0-2	2	1	18	2	2	0	0	37
02	EPPS, Isaiah	-	0-1	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
04	JOHNSON, John	-	1-5	0-2	2-3	0-2	2	5	4	5	3	0	0	22
42	ZANNA, Talib	-	1-2	0-0	0-0	2-2	4	1	2	0	1	0	0	9
44	MOORE, J.J.	-	1-3	0-1	0-0	1-3	4	0	2	0	2	1	0	14
TM	TEAM	-	-	-	-	1-4	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Totals..............	-	23-56	5-19	12-15	18-26	44	13	63	14	17	5	1	200
			41.1%	26.3%	80.0%
	Team summary:		FG	3FG	FT
	1st Half:		11-29	2-8	7-8
			37.9%	25.0%	87.5%
	2nd Half:		12-27	3-11	5-7
			44.4%	27.3%	71.4%

Score by Periods	1st	2nd	Total
Cincinnati	31	35	66	Record: ((11-3, 1-0))
PITT	31	32	63	Record: ((11-4, 0-2))

Points in the paint-UC 28,PITT 30. Points off turnovers-UC 20,PITT 9.

2nd chance points-UC 10,PITT 12. Fast break points-UC 16,PITT 4.

Bench points-UC 0,PITT 8. Score tied-7 times. Lead changed-8 times.

Last FG-UC 2nd-03:04, PITT 2nd-01:59.

Largest lead-UC by 7 2nd-03:04, PITT by 8 1st-11:42.

Officials: John Cahill (R), Roger Ayers, Lamar Simpson  Technical fouls: Cincinnati-None. PITT-None.  Attendance: 12508

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