Tickets
By Bill Koch
Go.BEARCATS.com
GREENVILLE, N.C. - So many times Sunday afternoon it seemed as if the University of Cincinnati Bearcats were about to put East Carolina away, but every time the Bearcats opened a bit of breathing room the Pirates retaliated.
As the second half wore on, it became obvious that this would not be a blowout, but still the Bearcats were in position to get out of town with a conference road win.
Then everything fell apart. Leading by seven with 3:23 to play, UC did not score again while East Carolina, a team that entered the game ranked No. 271 in the RPI compared with UC at No. 27, reeled off 11 straight points to post an unlikely 50-46 victory before 4,574 fans at Minges Coliseum.
The Bearcats beat ECU by 21 points in their first meeting on Jan. 6 at Fifth Third Arena.
"A team like that you really can't let them hang around because the longer they hang around the more confident they can get," said UC forward Octavius Ellis, who registered his first career double-double with 14 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.
That's precisely what happened.
"We should have been up 12 or 14 at halftime," said associate head coach Larry Davis.
Instead, the Bearcats led by only five at intermission, and even though they led by nine early in the second half, they simply could not seal the victory.
The loss dealt a crucial blow to UC's hopes of repeating as American Athletic Conference champion. The Bearcats saw a four-game winning streak come to an end and are now 15-6 overall, 6-3 in the American, with first-place Tulsa still unbeaten at 9-0 and second-place SMU at 9-1. UC plays at SMU on Thursday night.
East Carolina (9-12, 2-6) ended a three-game losing streak and beat UC for the first time in nine tries. The Pirates received only six points from Terry Whisnant, who entered the game averaging 14.6, but freshman guard B.J. Tyson picked up the slack with 18 points off the bench, six above his average.
The Bearcats had played well offensively during their winning streak, but slipped back into their offensive doldrums against ECU, shooting 35.6 percent for the game, just 29.2 percent in the second half. They made 3 of 18 from long range and guards Kevin Johnson and Troy Caupain were a combined 1-for-14, 0-for-10 from beyond the arc. Those numbers produced UC's lowest scoring output of the season.
Caupain did not start for the first time this season. The reason given by Davis was simply "coach's decision," but apparently it had nothing to do with Caupain's ejection from the UConn game on Thursday.
Farad Cobb got his first start in Caupain's place and scored 13 points. He scored 10 in the first nine-plus minutes, but was replaced in the lineup with 10:54 to go in the half and didn't return until the 3:55 mark.
"Sometimes you forget him over there a little bit," Davis said, "and we were doing pretty good defensively with the group we had in there. We got him back in in the second half."
Despite their poor shooting, the Bearcats led by seven with 3:23 to go after two free throws by Ellis. But they committed two devastating turnovers - one by Cobb and one by Kevin Johnson - both of which led to East Carolina layups.
"Basically it came down to us guards not taking care of the ball," Cobb said. "We didn't have anything going offensively. I think the turnovers were the biggest thing between me and the other guards. We've got to take care of the ball and close the game. We've also got to get back and protect the basket on defense."
The Bearcats missed four 3-point shots during that decisive final stretch as they grew tentative offensively against ECU's zone. Overall, they missed their last eight shots and failed to make a field goal after Cobb connected on a 3-pointer with 8:39 to go.
"We turned it over twice where we couldn't defend them," Davis said. "We gave them two layups. Then on the offensive end you've either got to get the ball to the high post or you've got to drive the ball into the paint and get some shots from there. We didn't do either.
"We threw it around on the perimeter and when you only get less than a third of your misses back...and we were missing shots today, it was one of those days. That's why we say defense and rebounding are the most important things. The problem was we had nine offensive rebounds out of 29 misses. We've been a team that's been rebounding at a 40 percent clip."
No one connected with UC attempted to sugarcoat the loss. As Cobb said, "I don't want to say they're a bad team, but I think it was a bad loss for us because of the way we've been playing. Everyone plays better at home so we knew they were going to come out with a lot of intensity. Basically it just came down to them outplaying us. They got a lot of loose balls."
That will have to change if the Bearcats are going to knock off SMU on Thursday night in Dallas in a game that now takes on even more importance than it already had.
"Now you go to SMU and it's a must win," Davis said. "It's going to be a tough environment. They're going to be laying for us because we beat them the first time, kind of like we were for UConn, so the Bearcats are going to have to play their best basketball. The Bearcats are going to have to be the Bearcats. If there's a loose ball, we'd better get all of them."
Bill Koch covered UC Athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of GoBEARCATS.com in January, 2015 as featured columnist in January.