TicketsDec. 21, 2011
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CINCINNATI - For the second straight outing, the University of Cincinnati men's basketball team reached the 100-point plateau en route to a 101-53 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff Wednesday evening for its 300th win at Fifth Third Arena.
The last time the Bearcats, who defeated Radford on Saturday 101-70, reached the century mark in points in consecutive games was Dec. 1 and Dec. 4, 1976 when they defeated Wright State and South Florida 120-52 and 103-69, respectively.
UC's combination of converting points off turnovers and hitting three-pointers at a high rate were too much for Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1-9) to overcome.
Cincinnati (8-3) used a tight man-to-man half-court defense to recorded 16 steals on its way to forcing 29 turnovers, which were converted into 29 points. The 16 steals were the most by a Bearcats team during the Mick Cronin era.
Cincinnati shot 34 for 67 (50.7 percent) from the field and 15 for 28 (53.6 percent) from three-point range as five Bearcats scored in double figures, led by junior point guard Cashmere Wright (Savannah, Ga./Urban Christian Academy), who netted a game-high 20 points and made a career-best six treys. The 15 threes were the most for the Bearcats since Nov. 21, 2006 when they made 17 against Wofford.
After scoring three points in the first half, junior guard Jaquon Parker (Suffolk, Va./King's Fork) produced 10 straight points for the Bearcats midway through the second half, highlighted by a four-point play that saw him swish a deep three-pointer from the left wing while getting fouled. Parker ended the night with a career-high 17 points.
Freshman guard Jeremiah Davis III (Muncie, Ind./Huntington Prep), who scored a career-high 13 points, put UC into triple digits when he netted a three-pointer from the right corner with 25 seconds left in the game.
Redshirt freshman center Kelvin Gaines (Ocala, Fla./Arlington Country Day) had his most productive outing of the season after totaling career highs in points (7), rebounds (6) and blocks (3).
Cincinnati went into the second half leading 50-29 after it ended the first half on a 9-1 run.
Great ball movement against APB's zone defense led to a dunk by senior guard Dion Dixon (Chicago, Ill./Crane Technical Prep Common), which was set up on an assist from Gaines from the right baseline to increase Cincinnati's lead to 45-29 with 2:20 left in the first stanza. Dixon totaled 16 points and set career highs in assists (5) and steals (4) to go with six boards.
Dixon later returned the favor to Gaines when the two hooked up for an alley-oop dunk with 25 seconds remaining in the first half to bring the score to 50-29.
Wright led all scorers with 17 points in the first half after tying his previous career high with five three-pointers.
The Bearcats started the game by taking a 7-0 lead, which Arkansas-Pine Bluff responded to with an 8-0 run of its own.
Starting at the 16:49 mark, Wright made three straight three-point attempts in a 2:23 span, including long-range bombs on consecutive Bearcats possessions.
A three from redshirt sophomore Sean Kilpatrick (White Plains, N.Y./Notre Dame Prep) capped an 8-0 run to make lead 25-15 with 10:00 left in first. Kilpatrick ended the night with 12 points, a career-best six steals, four rebounds and three assists.
UC made another 8-0 run that saw Wright score eight points and increase the lead to 38-22 with 5:53 left in the first.
Cincinnati will try to score 100 points for the third game in a row, which would be a program first, when it plays host to Chicago State at 7 p.m. Friday at Fifth Third Arena.