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By Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
HOUSTON - His team burdened with a three-game losing streak and facing the prospect of seeing its NCAA Tournament chances slip away, University of Cincinnati associate head coach Larry Davis pulled out all the stops Saturday night against Houston.
He gave forward Shaq Thomas his first start since January 15 and benched Jermaine Sanders and he started Farad Cobb at shooting guard in place of Kevin Johnson.
Oh, and before the game, he talked to his players about the 1941-44 Siege of Leningrad.
On this night, it seemed as if everything Davis tried worked. Thomas responded to his promotion by leading the Bearcats with a career-high 18 points. Johnson responded to his demotion with 12 points and five rebounds. And Sanders made a crucial 3-point shot when UC began to pull away from Houston in the second half. Gary Clark also had a big game for the Bearcats with 11 points and 14 rebounds for his third career double-double.
It all added up to a 63-53 UC victory - the 1,700th in school history - before a crowd that was generously listed at 3,562 at Hofheinz Pavilion.
When it was over, the Bearcats (18-9 overall, 9-5 in the American Athletic Conference) breathed a sigh of relief, while Houston, which was led by Danrad Knowles' 16 points, absorbed its fifth straight loss and fell to 9-17, 1-13.
"We've been in predicaments like this before," Thomas said. "We knew we just had to keep on fighting and we were going to pull through eventually. It was important to get back in the win column."
Davis' reference to Leningrad seemed appropriate when the Bearcats seemed to be under siege when they got off to another terrible start offensively and fell behind, 22-12, with 7:33 to play in the first half. As if that wasn't bad enough, center Octavius Ellis was called for a flagrant two foul at that point when the officials decided that he was overly aggressive in trying to stop Houston's Devonta Pollard from driving to the rim for a would-be dunk.
"(The official) said they he didn't go after the ball and just shoved him in the air," Davis said.
Whether Davis' pre-game remarks had anything to do with UC's comeback is impossible to know, but Davis, who likes to use historical references as motivation, would like to think they did.
"I wrote up on the board '1941, 3 million people, 900 days and a quarter pound' because by the time the second year of the siege came everybody was down to a quarter pound of bread a day ration," Davis said. "That's all they had. I said tonight and the rest of the season all that matters is that you stay together because those people stayed together and they fought and they refused to give in. If we do the same thing, if you just keep fighting, it will turn for you."
So it did. After Ellis was exiled to the UC locker room, the Bearcats outscored Houston, 13-6, to get within three points at halftime, perfectly positioned to pounce after intermission.
Knowing that Houston guard L.J. Rose would not play the rest of the game due to an injury, Davis instructed the Bearcats to increase their full-court pressure to start the second half. Again, he flipped the right switch. UC came up with two quick steals and converted them into four points to regain the lead less than a minute into the second half.
"That helped a lot," Clark said. "It let the room and the opponent know that the Bearcats are here now. You'd better get prepared for what's coming."
UC went ahead by seven on Sanders' trey with 8:05 to play. The Cougars came back to get within two with 6:48 remaining, but the Bearcats responded with a 12-0 run to put the game away, the first five of those points coming from Thomas, who made a crucial 3-pointer with the shot clock under 10 seconds.
The Bearcats shot 43.8 percent from the field - 50 percent in the second half - and limited the Cougars to 38.3 percent shooting. They outscored Houston, 20-9, in points off turnovers.
"Losing three straight, we definitely knew our backs were against the wall and we can't lose again if we expect an NCAA appearance," Clark said. "You've got to keep playing Bearcat basketball. Those games are gritty games, but we've got to grind it out and come out with a win somehow."
// PRESERVING THE CULTURE
Freshman forward Quadri Moore, who missed UC's last two games due to suspension, is back in good standing, but redshirt freshman guard Deshaun Morman has taken his place on the suspended list, Davis said after the game.
"Right now we have a great tradition at Cincinnati," Davis said. "The Bearcats do the right things on and off the floor. They pull for their teammates. That's how we built this program and Deshaun's not fulfilling that right at the moment, so he will not be with us as a result of that."
Davis said the tradition is the foundation for the entire program and cannot be compromised "because we want to teach guys how to be the right kind of people as well as a good player. Just like Quadri Moore. He did some things that caused him to be suspended from the team for awhile. Now he's back. Deshaun Morman will have the same chance. We'll see what happens. We have to preserve the culture in our program because the culture is the most important thing. That's why we've been to four straight NCAA tournaments."
Morman was averaging 3.6 points while playing 10 minutes per game.
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. Follow him on Twitter @bkoch.
The Bearcats return home on Wednesday, Feb. 25, when UCF visits for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff. For tickets, call 877-CATS-TIX or visit BearcatsBasketball.com.