TicketsWhite's Jumper Sends Cats to Sixth-Straight Win
Contact: Brian Teter
3/5/2005
James White's game-winning jumper gave the junior 11 points and 11 rebounds. |
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- James White grabbed an offensive rebound and hit an 8-foot baseline jumper with 16.2 seconds remaining to give No. 22 Cincinnati a 62-60 victory over Memphis on Saturday at FedExForum.
White scored after Armein Kirkland missed a 3-pointer, giving the Bearcats (24-6, 12-4 Conference USA) their sixth straight victory and clinching the third-seed in next week's 2005 Kelly Tires Conference USA Tournament back in Memphis.
UC's quarterfinal game will be at 8:30 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 10 against the winner of the first-round contest between No. 6 seed Houston and No. 11 seed USF.
Memphis had the ball with 5.2 seconds left, but Rodney Carney lost the ball on the inbounds play, sending the Tigers (16-14, 9-7) to their fourth straight loss.
Cincinnati survived despite shooting 33 percent from the field and 18-of-34 from the line. The Bearcats posted a 53-37 rebounding edge and White?s board was their 24th on the offensive end.
?We got a lot of rebounds," said head coach Bob Huggins. "When you can't shoot, you have to rebound. We didn't shoot the ball well, so we spent a lot of time rebounding."
Kirkland led the Bearcats with 16 points. Eric Hicks added 12 points and 11 rebounds, and White had 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Darius Washington had 19 points to lead Memphis, while Jeremy Hunt scored 13. The Tigers also struggled from the field, shooting 34 percent, the 21st UC opponent to be held under 40 percent shooting.
The Tigers led 35-30 at the half despite UC scoring the first eight points of the game. Memphis hit three 3-pointers for a 13-4 run and a 29-21 lead in the first half.
Cincinnati was hampered by 12 first-half turnovers, even though they dominated the boards 26-15.
Kirkland led the Bearcats with 12, while Hunt had 10 for Memphis.
The Memphis lead was erased early in the second half as the Tigers missed their first nine shots contributing to 11 unanswered points for the Bearcats to open the half.
"We just did a better job of guarding them," Huggins said. "They went almost 10 minutes without scoring. That tells you we did a pretty good job against a team that runs plays well and sets a lot of staggered screens."
Cincinnati maintained the lead by dominating the boards. But the bulk of their points came from the free throw line as Cincinnati had only one field goal during a stretch of seven minutes.
Memphis was able to tie the score on several occasions after breaking the scoring drought, but could not overcome the Bearcats until Joey Dorsey's inside basket with just under two minutes left.
Two free throws by Jason Maxiell gave Cincinnati the lead back, but a deep 3-pointer by Washington tied the game at 60 with 49.7 seconds left, setting the stage for White's winning basket.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.