TicketsDec. 11, 2006
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SETTING THE SCENE: The University of Cincinnati will engage in its annual battle for local bragging rights when the Bearcats host Xavier on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at Fifth Third Arena. The 7 p.m. EST contest will be the 74th edition of this rivalry, in which UC owns a 46-27 advantage but Xavier has won in seven of the last 10 seasons. Cincinnati enters the game with a hard-luck 6-2 ledger, having suffered its two losses by a total of three points. The Bearcats rallied from a 16-point deficit to defeat Temple, 80-71, on Saturday. Xavier, No. 24 in last week's Associated Press poll, is 7-2 following Saturday's 72-67 upset loss at Creighton.
STORY LINES:
Cincinnati's Mick Cronin will be coaching in his first Crosstown Shootout which is not a good omen. The Cincinnati-Xavier game has not been kind to coaches who were in their first years at their schools. The last six "rookie" mentors, Andy Kennedy, Bob Huggins and Tony Yates at UC and Skip Prosser, Thad Matta and Sean Miller at XU, lost while making their Crosstown Shootout debuts. In the history of the series, new head coaches at Cincinnati have a 5-5 record while their Xavier counterparts are 4-9.
This year's game will mark only the 22nd time the Cincinnati-Xavier game has been played on one of the two schools' campuses and the 13th time that it has been contested at UC. The Bearcats have won eight of the 12 games played on its Clifton campus with a 5-3 ledger in Fifth Third Arena and a 3-1 mark in Armory Fieldhouse.
There is an adage about throwing out the records when a rivalry crops up and that may be true of the Cincinnati-Xavier series in recent years. Eight of the last 10 UC-XU contests have had a Top 25-ranked team. In four of those contests, the unranked team has felled the ranked squad.
The teams have one opponent in common. Both played Northern Kentucky in a preseaseason exhibition. UC defeated the Norse, 87-41, while XU scored a 58-44 win.
LAST TIME VS. XAVIER: In a game of constant momentum swings, Xavier overcame a Cincinnati charge in the final minute of overtime to hang on for a 73-71 victory. UC built a seven-point halftime lead but XU erased that margin five minutes into the second half. The Musketeers overcame another seven-point deficit and held a six-point lead with 36 seconds left in regulation. Back-to-back Bearcat 3-pointers sent the game into overtime. Xavier had a five-point lead with 1:22 to play but UC tied the game 41 seconds later. Free throws by Stanley Burrell and Justin Doellman gave XU its eventual winning margin after James White's 3-point shot at the buzzer bounced off the rim.
LAST TIME AT FIFTH THIRD ARENA: Eric Hicks scored 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead Cincinnati to a 65-54 win over Xavier on Feb. 10, 2005 at Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats, who had been defeated by the Musketeers in two of the previous three crosstown shootout games played at UC, built a 28-22 halftime lead, then raced to a 21-point advantage midway through the second half. UC held XU to .298 shooting and won the rebounding battle by 11.
NOTING THE TEMPLE GAME:
Jamual Warren recorded twin career highs with 16 points and seven rebounds in the win over Temple. Warren also extended his streak of consecutive games with a steal to eight.
Marcus Sikes dished out a career-high five assists.
John Williams posted his second double-double of his UC career with 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.
After shooting just .351 in the first half, Cincinnati was .560 from the field in the second half to finish at .435. The Bearcats outrebounded Temple by 15 (43-28).
The victory was the 75th of Mick Cronin's coaching career, upping his record to 75-26.
The win snapped UC's three-game losing skid to Temple and improved the Bearcats' record in the series to 14-6. It was the ninth game of the series to be played on a neutral court. UC is 6-3 vs. the Owls on neutral courts.
SO CLOSE: Cincinnati, at 6-2, is separated by a mere three points from an unblemished 8-0 ledger. The Bearcats dropped a 91-90 decision to Wofford on Nov. 21 and suffered a 59-57 setback to UAB on Dec. 2. In both games, the winning points were scored on free throws in the final seven seconds and in both cases UC had a shot at the buzzer bounce off the rim.
VAUGHN MAKING AN IMPACT:
Deonta Vaughn has averaged 20.4 points over his last five games. The 6-1 freshman tallied a UC freshman single-game scoring record 33 points vs. Wofford on Nov. 21, with the aid of nine 3-pointers, second-most in UC history. He was the BIG EAST Conference Rookie of the Week for Nov. 20-26.
Vaughn's 33-point game vs. Wofford is the top individual game performance this season in the BIG EAST Conference as is his nine 3-point field goals. He enters the week second in the BIG EAST among freshmen scorers, his 15.6-point average edged by Seton Hall's Eugene Harvey, who is averaging 15.9.
Vaughn has dished out five or more assists in six games and leads the squad with a 4.9 average.
BEARCAT DATA:
John Williamson has averaged 9.7 rebounds over his last three games to boost his team-leading rebounding average to 8.1. He enters the week ranked eighth in the BIG EAST Conference in rebounding. Williamson, who gathered a career-high 13 rebounds in Saturday's win over Tulane, leads UC in scoring (15.8) field goal percentage (.600) and 3-point field goal percentage (.571).
Jamual Warren has become the defensive spark. The 6-2 guard has had at least one steal in every game and has had multiple steals in all but two contests to lead the Bearcats with his 2.0 average.
After shooting just .567 (38-of-67) at the foul line over their first four games, the Bearcats have shot a .746 percentage (53-of-71)over their last four contests.
Cincinnati has had a double digit rebounder in five of its eight games. Marvin Gentry collected 10 rebounds in the opener vs. Howard, Marcus Sikes collected 10 boards vs. Tennessee-Martin, Cedric McGowan had 12 rebounds vs. High Point and John Williamson had 11 vs. Wofford and 13 vs. Temple.
UC's 17 3-point field goals vs. Wofford (11/21/06) was the third-highest single game total while its 32 attempts was fifth-most. Half of UC's baskets were from behind the arc.
The Bearcats have had four double-double performances this season. Marcus Sikes had 18 points and 10 rebounds vs. Tennessee-Martin (11/11/06), Cedric McGowan recorded 13 points and 12 rebounds vs. High Point (11/12/06) and John Williamson totalled 19 points and 11 rebounds vs. Wofford (11/21/06) and 15 points and 13 rebounds vs. Temple (12/9/06).
Cincinnati has held four of its foes to 51 or fewer points. The Bearcats limited Howard to 39 points in the season opener, the fewest allowed by the Bearcats since an 89-37 victory over Southern Miss. on Feb. 15, 2002.
Cincinnati opened the season with three straight victories to win the Jim Thorpe Association Classic on Nov. 10-12. John Williamson was named tournament most outstanding player and Marcus Sikes was elected to the all-tournament team.
Sikes celebrated his 22nd birthday by recording the Bearcats' first double-double of the season in the win over Tennessee-Martin on Nov. 11. The 6-8 junior had 18 points and 10 rebounds vs. the Skyhawks. He was 3-of-6 from 3-point range and is UC's top 3-point shooter, sinking 5-of-8 from behind the arc.
Mick Cronin became the 18th UC head coach out of 26 to record a victory in his Bearcats coaching debut.
Cincinnati notched its 40th-consecutive victory in home openers and upped its record to 86-19 in season home openers.
The Bearcats upped their record in season openers to 87-19. UC has won 25 of its last 26 season openers.
LOOKING AHEAD: The Bearcats travel to Indianapolis this weekend for a much-anticipated contest vs. No. 5 Ohio State in the John Wooden Tradition on Saturday, Dec. 16 at Conseco Fieldhouse. Game time is 3:45 p.m. EST.