Cincinnati 68 Georgetown 64

What a win for the Cincinnati Bearcats last night over the Georgetown Hoyas. I don't really know how it happened, but it happened. I wrote something on twitter about the Bearcats going shot for shot with Hoyas, but it turned out I was looking at things the wrong way. The Hoyas couldn't let the Bearcats go shot for shot with them. The Hoyas started the second half at a blistering pace and weren't able to put the Bearcats away. This team is so weird because sometimes, like last night, they look like they can get on the floor with anyone and make them play to their will. Then other times, like the losses, they let the other team dictate tempo and pace. We have to find the consistency, then I believe this team can take off. 

The Hoyas had 59 points with 6:31 to go. They scored 5 the rest of the game. 2 were a meaningless layup. The defense was tremendous. Sean Kilpatrick got burned by me after the Harkless defense in the last game. He did a complete 180 the second half of this one. He was on Hollis Thompson, who went 4-4 in the first half. Thompson took 1 shot the second. We saw him lock down McDonald's All American on Georgia the second half of that game. We saw him lock down Thompson the second half of this game. Maybe something is there. The interior defense wasn't the rock of Gilbraltor, but it was very solid. The UC bigs challenged every pass inside, getting a lot of deflections. Justin Jackson and Yancy Gates were very active, even if the steal numbers don't back them up. Dixon and Kilpatrick put up 4 steals a piece. The Hoyas turned the ball over 17 times. That's a lot for a team that's very careful with the ball. The defense needed to lock down. And the defense locked down. Great performance late.

The defense of Justin Jackson on Otto Porter with 10 seconds left was tremendous. Jackson disrupted Porter just enough that Otto couldn't get a complete hang on his dribble and turned the ball over. We had good Justin Jackson last night, and he was dy-no-mite. 

Dion Dixon, the ice man cometh. 4-4 to close.



Win 100 for Mick Cronin. Congratulations, coach. Hopefully win 200 comes a lot faster.  

The free throw shooting was tremendous. 22 attempts is great. 18 makes is greater. This team needs to get to the line more. It's not so scary. The big heads in the student section won't attack you.

18:26-11:46 in the first half was the drought of the day. UC was outscored 6-0.  

The defense was pretty brutal the first 14 minutes of the second half. The Hoyas got 63% from the field. They were 11-13 at one point, I believe. Sims and Lubick got some easy shots. Jason Clark only got layups. It was not that fun to watch defensively. Giving up 11-16 from 2 in a half will hurt your percentages. 

7 assists. That just seems wrong. 

Career high 27 points from Sean Kilpatrick. He was 10-16, 3-5 from 3, 4-5 at the foul line. Yes, this was Cincinnati's Sean Kilpatrick, not some other guy wearing 23. The Bearcats found an offensive strategy that worked. Namely whoever was guarded by Porter went to the basket. Kilpatrick beat whoever was guarding him off the dribble all night long. He took good 3s. He got to the line. I talked about his solid defense up top. It was one of the best games he's had as a Bearcat end to end. For the second straight road game, he put the team on his back the second half with 16 points on 6-7 shooting. No one else in the second half scored double digits. Killa kind of neglected the glass, 2 boards, but his effort on both ends made up for it. Hell of a game. 



My best friend Dion Dixon was right by SK's side when it came to carrying the team, scoring 22 points. Kind of like the Pitt game, Dixon had a huge first half, 13 points, before SK took over the second half. Dixon added 9 in the second half. 5 of those coming at the foul line. He had 3 second half steals. Dion had some trouble hanging with Jason Clark, but denied him the ball enough that Clark didn't do a lot to beat them late. There is a second, slight problem I have with Dixon. He shot great from 2, but he was 1-5 from 3. He's 25.6% this season. Gotta chill on the 3s. Dixon answered the bell big time after a scoreless game against St John's. Cincinnati doesn't win if it's not for him making shots the first half and icing the game the second. 

Cashmere Wright didn't have a great statistical game at all. For the second straight game he didn't make a field goal, 0-6, 0-1. He made a pair of free throws to finish with 2 points. He had 4 assists against 3 turnovers, 3 rebounds and a steal. But he got the offense going and got guys moving. He made things happen, even though he wasn't making them happen for himself. He'll break out of his slump soon.

Yancy Gates got the start and played a very solid game. He played some great defense on Henry Sims. Sims turned the ball over 5 times in that game. Gates was 2-6 from the field, but 4-5 at the free throw line to get his 8 points. He pulled home 7 boards. I think we see Gates get his offensive game going a little more as things advance. There is still a feeling out process. UC was able to get him the ball on the blocks a few times with success. Ideally, you would like to see Gates pass more, but hey, this was only 1 game. Very solid effort from Yancy. Wouldn't have won without him.

JaQuon Parker was not meant for this game. UC went zone and the Hoyas posted him up. UC went man and the Hoyas posted him up. Don't know why Parker didn't get minutes at a guard spot when Cash had foul trouble the first half, but I'm not the coach. 11 minutes for JaQuon, 2 boards and a steal. Let's do it better the next time.

Jeremiah Davis didn't take a shot, but played solid minutes with Cash on the bench the first half. He didn't have an assist, but he didn't have a turnover. Small wins.

Justin Jackson played his best offensive half of the season and some great defense to boot. He had 6 of his 7 points in the first half. He took 2 good shots. He got to the line for 3 point plays. He converted them. He also took a stupid 3 that slightly made me hate him. Jackson was not great the second half with 4 fouls and a turnover. His defense inside was very solid both halves. Didn't get a rebound. Getting outrebounded by Cashmere Wright, Dion Dixon, 11 minutes of JaQuon Parker and Jeremiah Davis is weak, JJ. 

13 played some solid minutes. He had 2 points, 2 reobunds. He pretty much stands there being 7 feet tall for 10 minutes a game. It's effective. 

Ge'Lawn Guyn suffered a nasty looking collision when he and Greg Whittington dove for a ball. Guyn looked out of it. Whittington is big, Guyn is small. Head to shoulder/head is not a way to make contact. More on Guyn when it comes out.  

Jermaine Sanders put in 5 minutes with a board and assist. Since UC had 7 assists, that's a good thing. You'll get your time, Maine. He says as if Jermaine Sanders is going to read this. 

13-4, 3-1 in the Big East. Let's be honest, most of us thought 2-2 after 4 games. 3-1 is much better. Bring on Nova. 

I believe this one is what you called zipped up. The top picture is from Cincinnati.com/AP. The second two are from Go Bearcats/AP, as is the box score.  

Official Basketball Box Score
Cincinnati vs Georgetown
01/09/12 9:00 at Verizon Center


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VISITORS: Cincinnati 13-4, 3-1
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
01 Wright, Cashmere.... *  0-6    0-1    2-2    0  3  3   4   2  4  3  0  1  26
03 Dixon, Dion......... *  8-15   1-5    5-6    1  1  2   1  22  2  2  0  4  39
23 Kilpatrick, Sean.... * 10-16   3-5    4-5    1  1  2   3  27  0  1  0  4  37
34 Gates, Yancy........ *  2-6    0-0    4-5    3  4  7   2   8  0  1  0  2  32
44 Parker, Jaquon...... *  0-1    0-1    0-0    1  1  2   0   0  0  0  0  1  11
00 Davis III, Jeremiah.    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   0   0  0  0  0  0  12
05 Jackson, Justin.....    2-3    0-1    3-4    0  0  0   4   7  0  1  0  1  26
13 Mbodj, Cheikh.......    1-3    0-0    0-0    1  1  2   1   2  0  1  0  0  12
14 Guyn, Ge'Lawn.......    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0  0+
15 Sanders, Jermaine...    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  1  1   0   0  1  0  0  0   5
   TEAM................                         3     3
   Totals..............   23-50   4-13  18-22  10 13 23  15  68  7  9  0 13 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-27 44.4%   2nd Half: 11-23 47.8%   Game: 46.0%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  2-8  25.0%   2nd Half:  2-5  40.0%   Game: 30.8%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  6-6  100 %   2nd Half: 12-16 75.0%   Game: 81.8%    1


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME TEAM: Georgetown 13-3, 3-2
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
01 THOMPSON, Hollis.... *  5-6    4-4    0-0    1  4  5   3  14  2  2  0  2  36
05 STARKS, Markel...... *  4-8    2-4    0-0    0  3  3   1  10  1  1  0  1  31
14 SIMS, Henry......... *  4-9    0-0    2-4    1  2  3   1  10  2  5  1  1  29
21 CLARK, Jason........ *  6-7    0-1    2-3    0  2  2   2  14  2  4  2  1  35
34 LUBICK, Nate........ *  4-5    0-0    0-0    3  5  8   2   8  3  3  1  0  23
02 WHITTINGTON, Greg...    1-1    0-0    0-0    1  1  2   2   2  1  1  0  0  21
03 HOPKINS, Mikael.....    0-1    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  0  0  0  0   6
22 PORTER, Otto........    2-7    0-1    2-3    0  1  1   3   6  2  1  0  0  16
55 TRAWICK, Jabril.....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   1   0  1  0  0  0   3
   TEAM................                         1  1  2
   Totals..............   26-44   6-10   6-10   7 19 26  16  64 14 17  4  5 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-25 56.0%   2nd Half: 12-19 63.2%   Game: 59.1%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  5-7  71.4%   2nd Half:  1-3  33.3%   Game: 60.0%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  1-1  100 %   2nd Half:  5-9  55.6%   Game: 60.0%   2,1


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officials: Karl Hess, Tony Greene, Jeff Clark
Technical fouls: Cincinnati-None. Georgetown-None.
Attendance: 7877
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
Cincinnati....................   32   36  -   68
Georgetown....................   34   30  -   64

Points in the paint-CIN 32,HOYAS 28. Points off turnovers-CIN 20,HOYAS 7.
2nd chance points-CIN 2,HOYAS 6. Fast break points-CIN 6,HOYAS 5.
Bench points-CIN 9,HOYAS 8. Score tied-10 times. Lead changed-13 times.
Last FG-CIN 2nd-01:43, HOYAS 2nd-00:03.
Largest lead-CIN by 5 1st-09:25, HOYAS by 7 1st-14:05.